Fight and Flight
by TheRedPoet
Summary: I'd promised Charity I'd keep her daughter safe and so I would.
1. Chapter 1

A/n: Rewrote this chapter rather heavily. About 80% is new.

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You can call me a pessimist… And you'd probably be right. But on some level, ever since that day I left for Ebenezar's farm, I'd known it was going to end up this way.

I'd lived most of my life with that piece of knowledge right at the back of my mind and when the moment finally came, it didn't surprise me. I was ready.

Molly and I arrived at the shoreline warehouse with the late afternoon sun burning hot overhead. The warehouse itself wasn't visible but I knew it was there, and a lone figure stood sentinel outside of it.

Carlos Ramirez was less than ten years older than Molly but still wore the gray cloak of the wardens about his broad shoulders. He was one of only a handful in charge of helping me keep the entire United States in check.

He was of average height and in good shape, with a physique that I guessed came from spending a decent chunk of time lifting weights, probably as much for narcissistic reasons as to keep himself fit for combat.

Of the wardens, he was the one I knew best and probably the only one I could really call a friend.

He raised a hand in greeting as Molly and I approached, his forced smile not so much missing the area code he was shooting for as the city.

"Evening, Harry," he said, nodding at me, then Molly. "Miss."

"Carlos," I replied, accepting his hand and shaking it. "How're you doing?"

His eyes strayed to Molly for a second, his mouth twitching into a grimace for a brief moment before he managed to school his expression once more.

"Been better," he admitted. "Listen, man… Can I have a word in private?"

I looked over to Molly. She was shivering where she stood, despite the sweltering heat, and sweat ran in rivulets down her cheeks, ruining her makeup.

"Please keep your hands in sight and don't move," Ramirez said. "I'm under orders to shoot you if you try to escape. I'm sorry."

He had a desert eagle holstered at his hip, ready for the draw, but at least he wasn't posturing with his hand by it like a Wild West gunslinger.

Whatever little color was left drained from Molly's face. I put a hand my hand on her trembling shoulder and bent down until we were at eye level. Her wide, blue eyes were darting around the area in panic, and it took a few seconds before they locked on mine.

"It'll be alright," I promised her. "No matter what happens, I won't let anyone hurt you, okay? Stay right here.I'll be back in a second."

She nodded jerkily, wiping at her nose.I turned back to Ramirez, trying not to think of how little I would really be able to do in a fight against the Senior Council, and walked until we were out of earshot.

"Was that really necessary?" I asked, glaring at him.

I'll give the kid some credit. He didn't flinch, though he did avoid my gaze.

"Better tell her now than have her do something stupid," he shot back.

He took a few moments to calm himself before continuing. When he spoke, his tone of voice carried the careful pitying note used to address someone who had recently lost a loved one.

"This isn't going to go well for you, Harry. Marta Liberty, McCoy and Listens-To-Wind haven't reported back from the fight yet. The Merlin has all their votes."

Shit. I swallowed and did the math in my head, weighing up the options, the metaphoric cards in my hand and those now in The Merlin's. The man didn't like or trust me and had wanted me executed when I'd been the one up for trial.

He had even less of an incentive to be helpful now, and the help I'd once had wasn't there. Even with the help of Ebenezar and his allies, it would've been up to the Gatekeeper's decision but now... I did the math again, but there just wasn't any way of walking into that warehouse that meant walking away alive.

"Thanks for telling me," I told him stiffly.

My gaze drifted down to his belt again and something new caught my eye there. A single, black hood.

"I'm really sorry, Harry," he said and turned us back towards Molly. "There's nothing I can do."

I put my hand around his shoulder.

"I appreciate it, man." I caught Molly's eyes and mouthed the words "Get ready."

The next part was going to get dicey. Ramirez was a very competent combat wizard; he didn't have as much raw power as I did, but what he did have he used well. In a fair fight, it would be all but impossible for me to take him down without killing him.

He was one of the good guys. Killing him just wasn't acceptable. I walked another few steps along with him, my arm slung around his shoulder in an amicable fashion.

He relaxed, and I made my move.

I slipped in behind him, snaking my arm around his throat and tightening it hard.

"I'm sorry," I said, as he panicked at the sudden lack of oxygen. "I can't risk it."

A proper choke works fast, as Murphy had shown me. Ramirez struggled, slamming his elbow into my ribs several times, each blow sending pain lancing through my body. Slowly but surely, Ramirez' strength began to fade and the blows became weaker until he finally went limp.

I dropped him as gently as I could onto the asphalt and hurried over to Molly. Her eyes were wide with confusion, but she followed me as I took her hand, hurrying over to the Beetle. It took me three tries to get the key into the ignition with my shaking hands, and when I finally managed it, I had to force myself not to scatter gravel everywhere as I drove away. If we were spotted leaving, I'd be one good hex from capture and certain death. Nice and easy. That was how we were going to get out of this.

I kept rubbernecking, but nobody came running and no alarms were raised. It looked like we were safe for the time being.

As soon as we hit the highway, I put the pedal to the metal, tearing down the asphalt and leaving the acrid smell of burnt rubber in my wake.

"What are we doing, Harry?" Molly asked. Her voice was still trembling with fear and almost childlike confusion.

"Running. Fleeing. Skedaddling. Give me a second, alright? I need to think."

To be specific, I needed to seek counsel from a being I'd avoided the past few years, except under the direst of circumstances. It wasn't just my life at stake this time around, though, and I could only think of one source that would give me the information we needed.

"Lasciel," I thought. "I seek your assistance."

"And wisely so," the fallen angel replied.

Upon glancing in the rearview mirror, I saw that she'd appeared in the backseat of The Beetle, legs primly crossed, hands folded in her lap. She smiled at me, a little bit insolently, and buckled up her seat belt. I guess I should be grateful she spared me a Sharon Stone impression.

"You have little time, my host," she told me, as if she was suggesting what I might have for dinner. "The White Council will be aware of your desertion momentarily, and the Wardens will soon be upon you."

"I'm glad you're here to tell me these things," I shot back at her in annoyance. "What do you suggest I do next?"

Lasciel made a thoughtful sound.

"It is a risk, but you must go to your apartment. Order the pixies who clean it to get rid of anything that might be used against you in a tracking spell. I would recommend you burn it all down to the ground just to be safe, but I don't think you'd agree to that."

"Damn straight I wouldn't."

"One would think that after all the buildings you've burned down, another would barely register."

"One would also think that joke would get stale after a while, but apparently not," I groused. "Can we get back on track?"

Lasciel sighed.

"Very well. Upon your return, fetch the skull and your gear. I will show you how to summon my coin."

"No fucking way," I spat out immediately.

"Please hear me out, my host," she pleaded. "When the Council search your house, they will find the coin. And when they do, you will surely be condemned. Thus far, although you are a dangerous wizard, you have not seriously harmed anyone. If they knew you had my coin, they would treat you in the same manner as they did Kemmler."

I swore under my breath and Molly gave me a wide-eyed look. Out of respect for Michael, I try not swearing around him or his family. I shook my head and returned to my mental conference with Lasciel.

"I won't pick up the coin and I don't have the time to work my way through the concrete."

"Indeed. You will pick up the coin of your free will one day, my host, but not this day. I am not attempting trickery or deception. I can teach you to summon the coin in a few seconds and you needn't accept it."

I gritted my teeth.

"Fine. What about after that?" I asked.

"The car is the least predictable method of travel, especially considering you might not only be dealing with the White Council. It is also probable that they will involve the authorities, whether it be directly or indirectly. You should change car as soon as it is convenient and move back and forth through the Nevernever."

"Thanks, Lash," I said. There was a moment of startled silence following the statement, and I saw a brief flash of a smile.

"Certainly, my host."

I shut down the link and shoved the fallen angel far back into my subconscious as we left the highway and returned to Chicago proper.

"In the next few hours, we're going to be dealing with a couple of difficult choices, Molly. What it really boils down to is whether you're with me or not. If you want, you can turn back to the council. They'll probably execute you. You could try to run on your own, if that's what you want, or you can come with me."

Molly took a few seconds to come up with an answer. I could all but tell what she was thinking. She wanted to go home to her father. Michael was a good man, and he'd gladly die for any of his children - Molly knew that as well as I did and didn't want to put her family in that position.

"You saved my life," Molly said, in a quiet thoughtful voice. "You didn't have to but you did. I'm going with you."

We lapsed into an uncomfortable silence, which only grew worse as we got closer to my apartment.

"We've only got a minute," I told Molly firmly as she reached the block where my apartment was. Some jerk had parked a green Volvo in my parking spot, which forced me to park on a side street a little way away from the building.

"Whatever happens in the next few hours, don't use magic on another human. If you can pull up a veil, do it, but that's all. Understood?"

"Okay," she said, looking over her shoulder before following me down the flight of stairs that led to my door. "Gotcha."

I disabled the wards that had kept my apartment safe over many years, though they wouldn't have done diddly squat against the assembled might of the White Council, and slipped inside. My cat, Mister, frightened Molly half to death as he rammed into my shin and then out of the door.

I'd have to ask Murphy to take care of him later. I'd at least had the foresight of asking my half-brother Thomas to take care of Mouse in case something went wrong.

"My trouble kit is in the bedroom over there, under the bed. Check the pantry in the kitchen for stuff we can take with us that won't go bad," I instructed her.

There probably wasn't a lot, but I needed a few seconds in the lab.

Molly did as she'd been told. Nothing like a bit of mortal peril and a daring flight to get her used to taking orders, it would seem. This whole apprenticeship thing was moving along swimmingly already. I told my cleaning staff, present but invisible at the moment, to scour the place as Lasciel had instructed.

I pushed aside the rug, opened the trapdoor, almost tripping and killing myself in my hurry to get down the stairs.

"Harry, what're you-?" Bright orange lights flared up in the eye sockets of the bleached human skull sitting on one of the many shelves in my lab.

"Pipe down," I hissed. "No talking in front of, or near the girl, or anywhere she can hear. No contact at all."

"Jawohl, herr kommendant," he muttered sourly.

"Bob. I've got the entire White Council on my tail. If they catch me, they catch you, so for once in your life, shut up!"

Bob's jaws clacked shut and for once in his unlife, he did what he'd been told.

I faced the ring of silver on my floor where I'd buried Laciel's coin under a foot of concrete.

"Picture the coin in your mind, sigil up. Focus on the sigil and repeat after me…"

She said a word, a long, complicated word in a tongue I didn't know or recognize. She repeated it, over and over, and I mimicked her until I finally got it perfect and a solid weight settled in the gloved palm of my left hand.

The coin was small, blackened with age, except for the sigil, Lasciel's name shining with a bright silver sheen.

"Well done, my host. Let us depart."

I made it up the ladder again and found Molly waiting for me.

"Are you ready?" I asked her, already heading towards the exit.

She nodded shakily and followed me as I shoved the door open. A year back, zombies had tried to tear their way in and I hadn't been able to afford a professional to fix it up. My own repairs had left it fitted awkwardly, so you had to give it a good shove to open.

There was a yelp as the door slammed into somebody on the other side. I only had a moment to take in the sight of a blurry humanoid form on the ground, concealed flimsy veil.

Acting on instinct, I lashed out with a sweeping blow, slamming the bottom part of my staff to its head. The staff impacted with a thunk and the shape resolved itself into that of a young stocky woman with a buzz-cut and a gray cloak. She appeared to be in her mid-twenties, though that didn't tell you a lot when it came to a wizard.

I idly noted that it was probably a good thing I hadn't known she was a woman when I'd hit her, or I might have hesitated for a critical moment.

She wasn't out cold, but her eyes looked vague and I doubted she'd be able to work any magic. There wasn't any time to spare worrying about her condition, in any case. This warden wasn't part of any strike force the Merlin would prefer to send. She was someone he'd placed here for the contingency where I ran for it. By the looks of things, he'd had a pretty limited supply of wardens to go to for that, what with the battle in Oregon and all. But rest assured, there were wizards coming who could and would utterly destroy me, if need be, and I had to get the hell out of dodge before they found me.

I readied my shield bracelet and cleared the stairs in three strides. I could hear Molly stumbling along in my trail, but didn't look back to confirm. That was fortunate because warden number two sucker-punched me the moment I could see the street.

My shield was ready, but my balance was off and the ground not ideal. I caught the blow of raw kinetic force on my shield, which caused it to flare up for a moment in a disc of blue light, before returning to invisibility.

The blow hadn't been particularly powerful, but it was well placed and came in with a bit of spin, sending me stumbling. My left knee struck the concrete hard and I scraped my hand as I scrambled to get back up.

The warden didn't hesitate for even a moment,the second spell coming for me less than a second after the first. My shield intercepted it too, but I hadn't had the time or the focus to block it properly this time.

Some of the force bled through and hit me right on the nose. Which sucked.

I braced myself for the third spell, knowing full well that this time, my defense would not be ready in time. Suddenly, a shower of sparks and a flare of power burst from behind me.

It wasn't much. It didn't even make it all the way to the warden, but it bought me a second. A second was all I needed.

I jumped up the last of the stairs onto the solid ground of the little garden, readying my staff and taking stock of my attacker. He was of average height, dark of skin, and slim, with droplets of sweat beading on his bald scalp.

"Molly," I said, groping in my pocket for a moment and fishing out the keys. I tossed them to her. "Start up the car."

As she reached out for them, I was reminded that it was Alicia and not Molly who played softball as the girl fumbled with the keys, dropping them onto the gravel.

One would've thought that I'd be too busy with a magical duel to accidentally notice - and I'd like to stress accidentally, especially if her mother asks - the amount of thigh exposed by Molly as she bent over to fetch the keys, but apparently not.

I caught a flicker of movement over by the stairs. The warden I'd clubbed seemed to be back on her feet and under a veil again.

Picking your ground and using it well is the key to winning any fight, large or small, magical or otherwise. The older of the two wardens had done it well, and his younger compatriot had been unlucky that she'd been hit by the door, or she might have sucker-punched me.

Maybe she was still a bit dizzy, because she clearly wasn't paying attention to where she was standing.

I drew in power and pointed my staff at the hydrant two feet away from her.

"Forzare!"

Raw force surged forwards and tore the hydrant out of the ground. Water erupted from the resulting wreckage and slowly, like grease on a frying pan under hot water, the veil slid off the warden.

She began to move away, stumbling more than running, and tripped before she'd gotten more than three strides. Under the spray of the water, it'd be difficult for her to put together a spell , which bought me another few crucial seconds.

Her fellow warden sent another blast my way, but he just wasn't strong enough now that I was prepared for it. I deflected the blow to the right scattering gravel everywhere.

I backed away slowly, not willing to risk killing them with a full strength blast. What I needed was a smokescreen of some sort, or a distraction… I've never been a very subtle guy, though. A literal smokescreen would probably do the job just as well.

Behind me, the beetle's engine coughed to life. It was time to go. My gaze locked onto the green Volvo that was parked in my spot. It stood about halfway between myself and the Wardens. Perfect. Fuck you very much, Mr Parking Space Thief.

"Fuego!" I shouted, sending forth a tightly focused beam of fire, laced with just a smidgen of hellfire. It gouged a hole straight through the metal carapace of the old Volvo.

Cars don't explode from crashes like in the movies, or when driven off a cliff. Not unless you're very, very unlucky, at least. But if you pour hellfire into their gas tank, well...

I'd already begun to run in the opposite direction, but some of the heat and the shockwave caught up with me and I staggered, dropping to my hands and knees for a second, before picking myself up and running for my life. I ducked as a blindly sent spell howled past me and cracked the pavement a couple of feet to my right.

I dove into the passenger seat, no small feat for a man my size in a car like the Beetle, and Molly sped off down the street before I'd even gotten the door closed, leaving the wardens behind us.

"Are you alright?" I asked Molly as she took us into the questionable safety of Chicago traffic.

"Y-Yeah," Her eyes were flitting left and right as she kept track of the other cars, compulsively checking the rearview mirror every few seconds.

"Molly," I said, forcing myself to calm down, to speak slowly. "Do you even have a driver's license?"

She shook her head, earrings clinking together and jangling at the motion.

"Okay," I said, still talking slowly. It wasn't easy, coming down from the adrenaline high of our escape. I had to grip my hands onto my knees to keep them from shaking visibly.

"Pull over to the side here and we'll switch."

She pulled over and let go of both the clutch and the break at the same time. The Beetle lurched forwards and Molly quickly stomped her feet down on both the pedals again, only narrowly managing to bring the car to a stop before we crashed into a parked Sedan.

With another panicked glance in the rear view mirror and a stream of sputtered apologies, she turned the engine off and dashed around the car to switch with me.

We left Chicago by the highway. A bit obvious, I know, but if we'd gone by smaller roads there was always the risk of the car dying and leaving us stranded. The Beetle was as reliable a car as I'd ever had, but it would break down on me again, sooner or later.

My heartbeat began to slow down by the time we hit the highway that would take us southeast into Indiana and I glanced over to Molly. She looked pale in the wan light left from the setting sunI put a hand on her shoulder.

"We'll be okay," I said, as much to myself as to the girl. She needed someone to show the way. Where probably didn't matter as much as the fact that she believed I knew what I was doing.

So I drove, pretending I had a clue. I realized about an hour in that I was heading for the Ozarks. I guess it made sense. The place represented safety and stability to me and, besides Chicago, it was the closest thing I had to a home.

But I couldn't take Molly there. I owed Ebenezar more than to drag him into my own mess.

Lasciel appeared again in the backseat.

"My host," she said politely. "There is the Way to Florida the Summer Lady showed you. You needn't alter your course for a while longer. From Florida, I know of a Way that would take you to Australia. You have always wanted to go there, have you not?"

I blinked at that. She was right about the Way. It wasn't that far from here. Mostly, though, I was surprised by how thoughtful the suggestion had been. It probably said as much about me as Lasciel that my first instinct was to look for landmines.

"We'll do Florida, then we'll see where we go from there," I said.

"Florida?" Molly asked, yawning a little.

Woops. I hadn't realized I'd said it out loud.

"I know a Way to Florida through the Nevernever," I said and pulled over as I spotted a gas station. The beetle was still on half a tank, but it wouldn't hurt to fill it up as much as possible. The most important reason was for us to borrow a phone. There were a few calls I had to make.

I called Thomas first. He wasn't at home and, as much as it pained me, I had to leave him a message. I explained everything to him and promised to keep in touch, asking him to keep an eye on Mister and Mouse.

It was a terrible way of saying goodbye, but there wasn't anything to do about that. Next, I called Murphy's cell phone and she answered on the fourth ring.

"Murphy," she said, her voice slurred with exhaustion. She'd had a bunch of crappy days, too, and I'd probably woken her up.

"Hey Murph," I said. "Uh, I don't have a lot of time to explain, so you're just going to have to take my word on this. I fucked up the trial and we had to run. The Wardens are on my ass – uh- you may hear about some burning cars around my place if you haven't already."

There was a moment's silence following my words. "Oh. Shit."

"Yeah, things went FUBAR pretty quickly and I'm sorry. I have to go – check in on Mouse and Mister, would you? I've asked Thomas, too, but you never know with me and phones."

I could hear the tears she wasn't allowing herself to shed yet in her voice. "Of course, Harry. I'll take care of Chicago until you get back. Just- be safe."

I nodded, even though she obviously couldn't see it. "Thanks Karrin. I will."

Last, I called the Carpenters. Molly, who'd gotten the Beetle fueled up and used the bathroom whilst I was on the phone came walking over as I waited.

"Carpenter residence, Charity speaking," said a woman's voice on the other end, sounding tense and tired.

"It's Harry Dresden," I said. "Molly's alright. I need to talk to Michael."

"Harry, what-"

I cut her off.

"I need to talk to Michael. It's urgent."

There was a moment of silence and then the sound of the phone being put down on a counter a little bit harder than was necessary. Ten seconds later, Michael picked up the phone.

"Harry? Is everything alright?"

There was something about his calm, trusting voice that shattered whatever defenses I'd manage to hold up for Murphy's sake. I felt tears begin to run down my cheeks and my voice sounded raw when I spoke.

"I fucked up, Michael," I said. "I should've waited, but I didn't know, I swear. I had to take Molly and run, we-"

I cleared my throat. Damn it, this was not the time to break down like a fucking wimp. Now was the time for the self-discipline expected from a wizard of the White Council.

"We've got to run, Michael. I don't know how far, or for how long, but we have to get out or they'll kill us both. I-"

I clenched my jaw and tried to keep the tears out of my voice. It came out sounding steady, but hollow. "Thank you for being my friend."

He began to say something in that gentle, comforting voice of his, but I'd already passed the phone over to Molly. She didn't hold up any better. I gave her a minute of tearful good-byes with Charity and Michael before telling her we had to go.

We got back into the car, sitting in an uncomfortable silence. It was a while before Molly spoke again, and, even then, her voice sounded raw and unsteady.

"Why do they want to kill me?" She cleared her throat and then added. "The Council."

"It's a precaution," I explained. "Warlocks usually don't find their way back without anyone to help them, and even when someone does try, it often doesn't work."

Molly watched me in silence for a while.

"You were a warlock, weren't you?"

I returned the look, meeting her eyes and nodded.

"My first teacher was one twisted son of a bitch. He tried to put a magic mind-lock on me to turn me into his enforcer. I fought him and killed him."

"But you got better?"

I offered her a bitter smile and shrugged.

"I had a good teacher," I said. "He was hard on me, and I'm going to have to be hard on you too. I expect you won't like that. I don't care. I'm going to teach you and you're going to do what I tell you. Understood?"

She nodded, but as I'd predicted, she wasn't enthusiastic about what I was telling her.

"So while we're on the subject. What did I tell you about using magic against other people when we were at my apartment?"

"I-" She grimaced. "You said I shouldn't."

"And what did you do?"

"But he was going to-"

I felt anger rising inside me. It wasn't entire fair to the girl, but some of it leaked out into my voice.

"Quiet," I snarled. "Answer the fucking question. What did you do?"

"I tried to attack the warden with magic," she said sullenly, eyes fixed on the dashboard, her cheeks red with indignation.

"Yes. You probably saved both of our lives and don't think I'm not grateful for that…"

I put a hand on her chin and gently turned her head up to face me.

"But from now on you will do as I say, when I say. Is that understood?"

She spoke her next words through gritted teeth, but she said it, by thunder.

"Yes, sir."

I nodded and returned my attention to the road. It was a long damn road to spend with a sulking teenager…

"It would be wisest to wait for her to come to you, my host," Lasciel advised me from the back seat. "It means she surrenders to your will and admits to being wrong."

I glanced at the rear-view mirror, then at Molly, who was sitting with her arms folded under her breasts, looking uninterested and sour.

"It's eight hours drive until we get to the Way," I pointed out. "That's a long time, and I'm getting tired."

Even in the dark, I could see the white gleam of Lasciel's teeth as she smiled.

"She will not take eight hours, my host, and you could always talk to me."

I gave her a dubious look, at which she shrugged and said: "I am merely offering."

It was probably a testament to my suicidal stupidity when it came to women that I actually began to feel sorry for turning her down. Maybe one day I'll learn… But probably not.

An hour passed and it was one long hour. We passed through fields and smaller cities, and Molly remained stubbornly silent, though I could sense the restless energy in her.

Another ten minutes went by before she finally spoke.

"Will you teach me how to use magic without hurting people?"

I turned my head to her. "I will."

I drank deep from the can of coke that I'd brought before continuing.

"First of all, we'll have to see what your talents are. Being able to pull up a veil without anybody showing you how is damn impressive. I had one of the best wizards on the White Council trying to teach me and I still can't do them properly."

"Really?"

Even in the dark car, I could see her cheeks flush at the praise, her voice full of disbelief. It was really cute. I smiled a little to myself as I leaned back into my seat, checking the side-view mirror.

As with all good things, this one also had to come to an end.

"Here come the fuzz," I muttered, keeping the Blue Beetle steady as I looked sideways to Molly, and then back over my shoulder. "Have you ever tried veiling something bigger than yourself?"

Blue lights illuminated Molly's wide-eyed expression,the blaring of sirens following a moment later.

"No."

My hands tightened on the wheel.

"You're about to try."

Molly blinked, looking back at the approaching police cars, then her face set into determination. Power swirled and buzzed around her as she gathered her will about her, extending it outwards.

I felt that power brush by me, surprising me with how skillfully it was wielded, especially for someone with no formal training. The world around us blurred as the spell enveloped us, and I quickly realized the downsides of being invisible on a highway.

I swerved out of the slow lane in a panic as someone with the wrong idea of slow tried to drive straight through me.

The Beetle groaned and sputtered, tires skidding along the asphalt. Behind us, the police were approaching fast. I wrenched at the wheel and the vague outline of a police car shot past where we'd been just a moment earlier.

Beside me, Molly was muttering under her breath, eyes screwed shut. A bead of sweat was running down her pale cheek.

"Hold on," I said. "You're doing great."

The police were already disappearing into the darkness, visible only by the lights of their sirens. Things finally seemed like they were about to work out.

And then, as is par for the course, fate decided to rear her ugly head and smack me with the irony stick.

The Beetle's engine coughed and spluttered, and black smoke began to rise from the engine. A second later, Molly's veil faltered and she fell back against the seat, panting as her veil faltered.

An exit appeared. I turned off onto it, urging the Beetle on with every trick in the book. It bought us a hundred yards before my trusty steed finally gave up the ghost.

It wasn't until we'd come to a stop that I realized a third police car, without any sirens to herald its arrival, had caught up with us.

"Time to go."

I reached back for our bags and pushed my way out of the car in time to see the police car skid to a halt a few yards away. Three police officers moved out and dashed into cover behind the car. Two of them had pistols drawn, the third a shotgun.

The highway had exited onto a far smaller road, corn growing high on either side. Lights were spaced far apart, leaving patches of darkness in between.

"Come out with your hands above your head, Dresden!" One of the officers called.

I recognized the young, good looking man who had called out to me. Rudolph, looking pale and frightened under the streetlight where they'd parked the car. If I knew the sniveling little coward right, he had filled in his colleagues with enough bullshit to explain how terrified they both appeared.

I couldn't run with them behind me. Three people firing at us only thirty yards away didn't give us great odds of survival.

"Get behind me, Molly. Whatever happens, stay close."

I began to walk forward, pushing power through my shield bracelet and staff, lighting up the night in blue and crimson.

"Put down the stick and surrender, Dresden, or we will open fire!"

Call me petty, but I gained a lot of satisfaction from the way his voice shook and squeaked. I didn't say a word and just kept on walking. Their nerve broke when I'd crossed half the distance.

Rudolph's gun roared first, shattering the Beetle's window behind me and drawing a startled gasp from Molly. I reached back and seized her with by the shoulder with my right hand just to make sure she wouldn't try to run off.

The shotgun roared in response, follow by more, measured gunfire. My shield flared up in sprays of blue sparks with each bullet and shell that struck it but it held firm and kept moving with slow measured steps until I was ten feet away and the weapons clicked empty.

"Forzare," I roared, slashing my staff through the air.

The car lifted clear off the ground with the screeching of protesting metal and tumbled off to the side to land on its roof a few feet from its original position with another huge crash and shattering of glass.

Three deadly pale cops stared at me. One was holding a walkie talky thingy with its wires torn free and tangling from where they had once been connected to the car. Rudolph's hands were shaking so badly that he fumbled and dropped the fresh magazine he was trying to feed into his gun. The third cop was staring with at the wreckage of their car with a blank expression on his face.

"It's been a while, Rudie." I kicked the dropped magazine out into the shadows. "You'll get three guesses about what I want you to do next."

"Jesus, Dresden," Rudolph stammered, tossing his gun aside without question. "Jesus. Please don't."

I didn't speak. I just stood there, looking down at them .The other cops followed suit a few moments later.

"If anyone pulls a hidden gun out from somewhere," I warned them. "I'm dropping the car back on top of you. Repeatedly."

I could hear the sirens returning. In a minute, we'd be getting more company. It was time to Meep-meep right the hell out of here.

I didn't trust Rudolph's word for a second but I did trust that he was too much of a coward to even try to shoot me in the back. The other two I didn't know, so I backed off with my shield active and towards them, trying to keep the strain of holding the spell up for so long off my face.

The sirens drew nearer but I kept backing off slowly, feeding power into the bracelet and keeping my steps steady. I needed a way out and Lasciel kindly provided without even being asked. There was no time to debate the subject, with the police hot on our heels. If they managed to scramble a helicopter or dogs, the jig would be up even with a veil.

I cast a look over my shoulder and spotted a second car that had stopped to check on Rudolph and his buddies. It was out of hex range now and once it got close enough, it would be going fast enough that any hexing would mean people dying. I lengthened my stride and Molly hurried to keep pace.

"You didn't happen to run track in school?" I asked.

The girl was already panting as I settled into a jog.

"Soccer."

"Right. Pretend there's a ball off somewhere because we'll need to cover some ground here."

We set off into the darkness towards the Way Lasciel had marked in the field to our right, a few hundred yards ahead. Too far ahead, it turned out, when the car closed in on us, sirens howling.

"Into the field," I called, darting off the road and into the corn field. "If you see any murderous kids, run the other way."

I'd hoped to not be forced into running through the field but like the rest of the day, it seemed like Murphy - the law, not charged with upholding it - had decided to shit on my couch.

We'd only made it a few feet into the field before our line of sight was cut down to zilch. It would have to do. Calling forth light with my mother's pentacle amulet would give the police too good of a target if any of them were feeling trigger happy. We slowed, mindful of the uneven ground.

There was shouting behind us as the car skidded to a halt and a flashlight cut a swath through the darkness.

"Molly, wait." I reached out and only barely managed to snag her by the wrist before she vanished off into the field.

I crouched and turned over towards the car, extending a hand towards it.

"Hexus!"

The flashlights died, the flashing red and blue lights followed and the sirens droned on drunkenly for a few moments longer before going silent. We stayed still, crouched and listening, with nothing but our own heavy breathing and loud swearing from the police officers.

I grabbed Molly's hand and began to slowly lead her through the field. I couldn't see more than a foot ahead of me. Fortunately, Lasciel had a flawless sense of direction and had created the illusion of a flare above the location.

"It's time for Nevernever 101," I told Molly as we neared Lasciel's beacon. "Everything is dangerous. Don't trust anything or anyone you meet. Don't look at them, if you can help it and whatever you do, don't talk to them, even if they look human. Especially if they look human."

"Okay."

I had a feeling the breathless, almost choked quality to her voice was from fear, not exhaustion, but I didn't comment on it.

"If we run into trouble and I get taken out, you run and you call for Lily," I enunciated the name clearly. "Call her name three times and tell her Harry Dresden is cashing in his favor and she'll get you out."

I wasn't entirely sure she would, but without Lea around, that was the best contingency I could some up with.

"Oh. Okay."

We'd reached a patch of clear ground where a large old tree had been cleared, leaving behind a stump and a couple of feet of open ground around it. Molly stuck close by me, her face pale. She was trying to be brave and I had the feeling it wouldn't help to let her know I saw through it.

I was getting tired but there wasn't any time to waste on thinking about that. With a wave of my staff and a quiet aparturum, I opened up a few into the spirit world.

The Nevernever is an awesome and scary place and at no time more so than the first time. Molly's first visit had been to Arctis Tor, the heart of the Winter Court. There were worse places, sure, but I'd never seen any of them personally. She hadn't been conscious for a lot of the trip, as far as I knew, but I still wanted her second visit to be… Well, less traumatic.

The location we were to cross over to was as good a place as any you were likely to find, especially considering the circumstances.

The change wasn't as dramatic as one might have expected. There are supposedly some terrifying and mesmerizing places in the Nevernever, but the lands of the Sidhe, much like the Lords of Faerie themselves, were a lot like their human counterparts.

At first glance, you probably wouldn't have realized you'd passed into the Nevernever at all. We stepped into another clearing, though the forest that surrounded us now mostly consisted of large trees without much in the way of brush. Autumn leaves covered the ground in red and yellow and the light breeze was pleasantly warm.

A hundred feet away to our left, a little river went by and across it the lands were green and trees budding.

It didn't look very dramatic, but the river was what separated the lands of Winter and Summer. There was a bridge a kilometer away, but we weren't going that way. The way I'd understood it, this whole area was a kind of neutral zone.

"It looks so- normal," Molly said, looking around.

"Fairie looks lot like the mortal world," I confirmed. "Some places are weirder than others, but this is probably as close as you'll get."

I suddenly stopped in my tracks and Molly, who had been drifting out of my personal bubble a little as she relaxed, quickly took a step closer again

"Look," I said, pointing towards the trunk of one of the large trees. Molly looked along the length of my arm to where I pointed and her eyes widened when she spotted what I had.

A pixie was sleeping on a low-hanging branch. It was pretty big for one of the wee folk, maybe four inches tall, and looked like a young man about Molly's age, with blue hair that drifted in the soft breeze as it snored softly.

"Is it dangerous?" she asked, eyeing the fairy with much the same expression as one might a kitten.

"Yes," I told her seriously. "Everything here is dangerous."

I noticed her tensing and added. "But not alone and not unless we piss it off. Come on."

We detoured a little to avoid disturbing the pixie and made our way down to the river without being disturbed or disturbing anyone. Between two trees that had grown together to form an arch of sorts, I opened another Way.

We returned to the mortal world in the middle of a forest. The sun still shone here, fading by the horizon. It had been hours past midnight in Chicago but the trip had taken us many, many time-zones back. The air wasn't as hot or humid, but still warm.

"Where are we?" I asked Lasciel.

"Southern Sweden," the fallen angel provided. "Just outside a… village, I suppose. I am uncertain about the degree to which it has grown in the hundred years since I was here last."

She managed to insert a shrug into the words somehow and then continued.

"You should be able to find lodging there and in the morning, you're one to two hour's walk from the way that'll take you to Australia.

I nodded.

"Cool. Thanks."

"People used to appreciate Ways far more in the past," Lasciel noted, sounding almost chiding.

I rolled my eyes at the darkness.

"You're very awesome, Lasciel. I'd like you even better if you showed me where to walk next."

She sighed and a light appeared in mid-air thirty feet into the distance. Molly looked suitably impressed when I told her where we were and we set off.

As much as I hated to admit it, Lasciel was right. We'd have to stop soon to rest. Under ideal circumstances, I could probably stay awake for another twenty-four hours but the circumstances were not ideal. I'd slept badly the last few days and used up a lot of my magic, too. If I collapsed or if I was too tired to think properly, we'd both pay the price.

Molly was already stumbling along the uneven paths that took us up and down hill after hill and I stayed close in case she tripped over one of the many exposed roots and rocks.

We found our way to a road after about an hour of trekking through the forest and followed that for a while longer until we finally reached… Civilization, I suppose.

It was a community of a couple of hundred people at most. At least it made finding what seemed to be the only hotel easy enough.

A young guy, probably about Molly's age, sat behind a counter. He had a magazine with pictures of cars in it flipped open and was currently asleep, drooling on the picture of a fancy Mercedes.

I rapped my knuckles against the counter and he almost fell out of his chair in his haste to pretend he hadn't been sleeping on the job.

He said some stuff I didn't understand, blinked in realization and switched language.

"Uh, hello." He blinked a few times and managed to focus his bleary eyes on me. "How can I help you?"

"One room," I said. "Do you have any with twin beds?"

"Yes," he said, eyes on the money. Then he glanced at an open ledger by the desk. "Oh- actually,, we don't. Sorry."

"Just… Any room with a big bed," I said tiredly. My eyelids were getting leaden and there was no time to waste on being picky.

I paid him - fortunate that they actually accepted dollars at all - got the change in whatever the local currency was along with a key. We ambled up a stair, down to the end of a corridor, and went inside. It wasn't anything fancy, but it looked and smelled clean. There was a single bed standing at the center of the room, a TV on a little table by the wall opposite the foot of the bed and a door leading to a bathroom.

I felt the weight of Molly's eyes on me, but when I looked at her, she'd turned away.

"I'll take a quick shower first," I told her. "There are some things I need to set up before we sleep."

Molly nodded nervously, still not looking at me. Her cheeks were flushed pink and she was fussing with one of her sleeves.

I haven't had a proper heater since I moved into my old basement apartment and here the water was blissfully warm. It took me a pretty serious effort of will to cut my time short at five – okay maybe ten - minutes, but I managed it. I'd brought a fresh change of clothes, which was a small mercy given that I'd been wearing my leather duster all through the trip.

By the time I came out, Molly was sitting at the foot of the bed. She'd kicked out of her shoes and had her arms wrapped around herself as though she was freezing.

"Your turn, kid," I said, hooking a thumb at the shower. She got up and walked into the bathroom, carefully closing the door behind her. By the time I'd turned around to the bed, Lasciel lay on it. I would've expected her to wear some ridiculously slinky silk negligee, or perhaps nothing at all.

Instead, she lay on her stomach, facing me, wearing fluffy white flannel pajamas with kittens printed all across it.

I stopped in my tracks to take in that sight, mouth dropping open. Hell, she was even wearing horribly clashing green socks. It was adorable and way, way weird.

"What're you doing?" I asked her tiredly.

She looked perfectly innocent, of course.

"Getting ready for sleep, of course," she said, without any trace of irony or mockery. "I presumed that if you wished for me to wear the seatbelt in your car, you would likewise wish me to be appropriately prepared for bed."

I sighed. I did not have the energy to argue this with her.

"Sure, whatever," I said. "What do you want?"

Lasciel gave the door behind me a pointed look.

"That girl means to seduce you tonight," she said, an edge of teasing to her voice. I couldn't tell if she got off on the idea, or if they just thought it was funny.

"Yeah," I replied in a dry tone, grimacing. "She's not as subtle as she thinks she is."

The fallen angel laughed merrily.

"No, she is not. You could let her. Give her what she wants. It would be an excellent tool for controlling her."

"I'm going to teach her, not control her. Move out of the bed."

Lasciel raised one golden eyebrow at me. "As you wish, my host."

She vanished.

I moved the bed a few inches away from the wall, moved the bedside drawer into a corner and began to pour sand onto the linoleum floor in a circle around the bed. I had to make it a bit thinner than I would've preferred, since my earlier trip to Splattercon had meant using up a bit of the stock I kept at hand, but it was good enough.

Next, I set up a ward at the door. It wasn't a very good ward and it didn't have much in the way of power behind it, but it was enough to make a racket if somebody tried to mess with the door.

Molly emerged from the bathroom, dressed in her old clothes and with her hair mussed up from being dried sloppily with a towel. When she saw the circle of sand around the bed she stopped, looking at me with a pensive expression.

"Circle of power," I explained to her. I swung my legs off the bed and patted the bed next to me. "Come over here. Don't step on the sand."

Molly did so, looking sheepishly embarrassed as she settled a little bit too close. I acted as though I didn't notice.

"A circle of power does all kinds of things," I told her. "Magic can't go past it, from either side. You can use it to store energy when you're working a delicate spell, to summon or trap something, or what we're about to do, to use it as a protective barrier."

Molly blinked, then nodded.

"Okay. Is it working now?" She waved her hand through the air over the sand, as though expecting to brush up against something.

"No and if it had been, you would've broken it. Put your hand over the sand."

Molly bent over the circle and touched her fingers to it and stayed that while for a second before asking.

"Uh. And now?"

"Want it to close. Focus on that intention and-" There was a snap of magical energies as the circle closed and I felt a little surge of pride.

"Well done."

Molly beamed at me.

"Okay. What do I do now?" She asked eagerly.

"Sleep,"

Her smile faltered again and I couldn't blame her. I remember the first time I'd gotten to study magic. It had been the most amazing feeling to finally find something you were good at, and someone who understood you. I hated to spoil that for Molly.

"I'll show you more tomorrow," I promised her. "But for now, we really need to rest. You never know when you'll get a chance to do it next."

Molly nodded, moved over to the other side of the bed and hesitated for a moment before pulling her top off to reveal a black bra that strained to contain her bust.

She glanced at me and if she'd been brave enough to do it while undressing, she probably would've caught me looking. As it was, I had just stopped staring and looked down at my own clothes. I'd planned to sleep dressed on top of the covers, maybe using the duster as a bullet-proof blanket, but it was just too warm for that.

Screw it. I kept the shirt on, but unbuckled the jeans and pushed them to the floor, then hurriedly slipped under the blankets. Once there, I changed my mind, and got rid of the shirt, too. Only when I had done that did I return my attention to Molly.

She lay on her side with the covers pulled up to her pale shoulders, facing me with her cheek on the pillow. I'd only just put my head on my own pillow and gotten blissfully comfortable when I realized the lights were still on.

I groaned and looked up at the ceiling, considering whether I should wait for the concentrated magic in the circle to fry, or hex it down myself.

"I'll get it," Molly said quickly and shot back up from the bed. It was a calculated move and a rather blatant one at that and more or less confirmed both mine and Lasciel's theory.

I couldn't help looking. Molly was wearing the hell out the flirty black pair of bra and panties and watching her walk was very, very intriguing, no matter the angle. She dared to look at me more quickly this time around, and her eyes caught mine. There was heat there, as she watched me watch her and whatever little shred of doubt or denial I'd had left died with that look.

She really was about to try to seduce me. Hell's bells.

The bulb overhead flickered out and with the heavy blinds closed, there was only barely enough light to navigate by, but the sound of rustling sheets a moment later confirmed that Molly had found her way. There was silence following the sound of the sheets and the pop of the circle being re-activated and I lay back to wait for the inevitable. To the kid's credit, it didn't take long.

She made her way over to my side of the bed, bringing her pillow along with her.

"I'm cold," she said in a small voice. "Can I-?"

I sighed internally. I couldn't deny her that small comfort, especially not when she sounded that vulnerable and if I was going to be completely honest with myself, I needed comfort as much as she did. I'm an idiot, I know. I've been told.

My eyes had adjusted enough to see a shy little smile on her lips as Molly snuggled up to me, resting her head on my shoulder as much as on her pillow. It wasn't long before she slung an arm across my chest.

"Better?" I asked.

Molly made an 'Mmm' sound and cuddled up closer, the swell of her breasts pressing up against my side… and then her hand began to descend. She was slow about it, though I think it was from nerves and not patience. I'd like to say I didn't react, but I'd have been lying.

Molly was warm and beautiful and I'm only human. Some parts of me wanted to seize that comfort and revel in it, knowing how little time either of us was likely to have left... If she'd sucker-punched me with this, then maybe those parts would've won out. Now though, I was ready and had too much sense left in me to be able to ignore the fact that it would be wrong to take advantage of Molly like this.

I didn't tell her to stop. I just put my hand over hers, where it currently rested at my heart, and held it there. She froze and even in the dim light I could see the blush rising up her cheeks.

"It's okay, Molly," I told her gently. "No harm done. This just isn't a good time for either of us, okay?"

There were tears in her eyes, but she quickly blinked them away, accepting what comfort I had to offer. I curled my arm around her shoulders and it felt nice. It had been a long while since I'd fallen asleep next to somebody, but it didn't take long.

The room was warm when I woke up. The afternoon sun was to blame for a lot of that, but not solely. Molly had been pretty cozy when we'd fallen asleep, but now she lay more or less draped over me, her legs tangling with mine in a way that was about as innocent as O.J.

She'd stirred about at the same time that I had and seemed to have become aware of our positioning and its implications, judging by the deer caught in headlights look on her face. She rolled away and shambled out of the bed and into her clothes with jerky motions, refusing to look at me until after she'd gotten back from her shower.

My legs ached and protested as we made our way back out onto stairs leading down the sloping green lawns and the down to the gate that lead out onto the street. Standing in the archway made up of two slightly curved slabs of white sandstone and a second, flat slab of wood on top, was a cloaked figure.

He was a stout old man in dark robes, holding a staff of a dark, twisted wood.

Ebenezar McCoy… and by the looks of things, he'd brought the Black Staff.

Fuck.

* * *

I let go of my staff and the heavy oaken stick clattered once before rolling away along the cracked asphalt. Next, moving slowly, I removed my duster, letting it fall down my arms and onto the ground.

My blasting rod was tied to the inside of the coat and my gun was in one of its pockets. I looked over my shoulder to Molly, who had frozen in place and whose eyes sought mine, wide and fearful.

"Stay where you are, kid," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "No matter what happens, don't move."

I turned back to my mentor and his sad but determined expression scared me more than the instrument he'd brought with him – and there was no mistaking it was the Blackstaff, either. I could feel its energy all the way over where I stood – something cold, hungry and primal.

I held up both my hands, palms out to my old teacher.

"I don't want to fight," I told him.

Ebenezar frowned at that and his eyes drifted over to Molly.

"Explain yourself, Hoss."

And so I launched into the summary of what I'd been up to between our last meeting at the warehouse, sparing him none of the relevant details save for the mention of Lasciel. By the time I'd given the whole story, his wary stance had relaxed somewhat.

"I met the girl's father two days ago," Ebenezar said gruffly. "Good man. I wouldn't be standing here talking to you if it weren't for him."

He sighed.

"I understand why you did what you did, Hoss, but that doesn't change anything. You put two wardens in the hospital and assaulted a regional commander to escape with a warlock. The Merlin won't give a good Goddamn about how pure your motives were."

"No," I said darkly. "He wouldn't."

Ebenezar grimaced and scratched the pate of his bald head.

"Even the others wouldn't have any choice in the matter, Hoss."

I looked him in the eye without fear. We'd exchanged a soulgaze, many years ago, when I'd been an angry kid who he'd taken in and saved.

"Where does that leave us, sir?"

Ebenezar had always had a vibrant energy about him, but in the wake of my question, he looked very much like a man pushing three hundred.

"I can't help you with the Council. I understand why you did what you did. You had little choice in the matter, but as much as I hate it, it leaves us with few options. You have to run. Consult the creature who calls herself your Godmother and get her help to stay hidden. I will contact you when I can."

"Wait!" I said. "How are you going to find me?"

The question sparked another more relevant one.

"How did you find me?"

He moved in close and showed me the palm of his hand so that nobody but the two of us could see. There was a cut in the meaty part by the thumb. His dark eyes met mine for another moment in a significant look.

"Blood, Hoss," he said. "Now go. They're coming."

* * *

I stared at his hand until he drew it back and even after that, I remained rooted to the spot in pure shock. He'd used blood to track me. Not my blood, but his own. Just like I had done with Charity's blood to find Molly at Arctis Tor.

That meant… It was damn fortunate that I was too manly to faint, because otherwise I might have. But in the few seconds I worked out the implications of what my old teacher had shown me, he'd disappeared behind a veil and vanished.

I'd see him again. Or, I would if I survived. If I wanted answers to the million questions buzzing through my head, now was the time to get a move on.

I picked up my gear, grabbed Molly's hand in mine and ran for it.

My legs protested as the path took us downhill yet again. Roots poked up everywhere, threatening to rob me of my already questionable balance.

"Another two hundred yards and then the path veers off to a bridge over a small river," Lasciel supplied me. "From there, you follow a new path for a kilometer before taking a right out into the woods. There is a large rock there. Three paces - two for you, I suppose - in front of it, you can open a way."

Problematic terrain aside, the forest we were trundling through was picturesque. The trees grew tall, with little to no brush in between them, and under different circumstances it would have been a nice place for a brisk walk with Mouse. Unfortunately, that wasn't the day I was having.

"It's really nice here," Molly said.

We'd both been quiet for since we left town and it sounded like she'd been feeling uncomfortable about it.

"Kinda looks like something out of those new Lord of the Rings movies," I agreed. "Have you seen those?"

She rolled her eyes the way only people her age can, conveying supreme disapproval at how old and out of touch I was.

"Of course," she said. "Daniel begged me for a week to take him."

"Well… That was nice of y-"

I wasn't sure what made me do it, but I turned around and brought up my shield on pure reflex and less than a second later, it flared up in a flash of sparks as an unseen force slammed into it with the force of a professional linebacker. I skidded backward on the soles of my boots and only barely stayed up.

Warden Donald Morgan stood behind me, feet planted, the silver sword of his office drawn but not raised. Even so, I could feel the overwhelming presence of his power in the air.

"It is over, Dresden," he growled. "Surrender now."

"Nice seeing you too, Morgan," I shot back, moving so that I stood between him and Molly. "I'm fresh out of surrender but I do have a special on 'Go fuck yourself'. What do you say?"

Morgan had never been the sort to appreciate my humor and the years hadn't changed that.

"The girl is already condemned," he said. There was sadness there in his voice, but no doubt or hesitancy. "But The Merlin is willing to show lenience toward you."

"I'm not letting you take her," I said, pushing Molly in behind me.

"And I can't let you run."

I snarled and slammed my staff onto the hard earth and the runes carved into the wood flared up as I called power into it.

"I guess that only leaves us one way to go."

"Yes."

Morgan raised his sword to guard. I addressed Molly but never took my eyes off him.

"Molly… This is the end of the road. Run. Don't stop for as long as you can. Remember what I told you."

I could see her nodding in my peripheral vision and running off in my peripheral. A few moments later, the sound of her footsteps disappeared.

I grabbed the warden's cloak from my bag and dropped it on the ground. It wasn't just a significant as a gesture. They must have found me somehow and the only thing I had on me they could possibly use for a tracking spell was the cloak.

"Tell McCoy I'm sorry it had to be this way."

Molly's departure didn't change the situation much. Morgan was well known as one of the most powerful wizards in the world. What was more, he had almost a century of experience in the field on me. I could never beat him and we both knew it.

His first attack had been an attempted sucker punch, meant to take me down without killing me. If he'd wanted it, he could've come at me with enough power to kill me through any defense I could've thrown up.

Now he'd have to fight… But he wasn't attacking. I took a step backward, being careful with my footing. Morgan did the same. He was stalling.

Another step. Morgan followed and he stepped into the hole in the ground covered by leaves. It was only about two inches of a drop and didn't unbalance him or give me an opening for a sucker punch of my own but Morgan's right leg trembled.

And I remembered. Morgan and the rest of the wizards had been fighting the Red Court, presumably with Morgan right there at the front lines. He was injured.

Even on his best day, I'd take Morgan in a foot race. If his leg was hurt, I'd outpace him easily. All I needed was to get away from him.

"How far is that bridge again, Lasciel?" I wondered.

"Two-hundred and fifteen yards," Lasciel responded quickly. "But you'll never make it unless you distract the warden."

"That really is advice well worth the price of my soul. Fucking fantastic, Lash."

Morgan's stalling would pan out sooner or later and then I couldn't even hope for a death curse that'd buy Molly some extra time.

Salvation came not in the form of a fallen angel but the daughter of a Knight of the Cross. There was a blur in the air to Morgan's left and Molly appeared beside him without a sound to betray her approach.

That was my moment. I aimed my staff low and send a wave of kinetic force meant to send Morgan sprawling and at the same time Molly swung a heavy stick at his head. Morgan was fast. Faster than any man, let alone one his size, should be allowed to be.

He swept his sword up with his right hand, one-handed, and the silver blade cut improvised club in half. At the same time he thrust his right hand forward to bring up a shield. The spell blasted him back. The full power between every single one of my force-rings, though.

That had the desired effect. I didn't aim at him, though. I aimed at the ground right in front of him.

"Run, Molly!" I shouted as a spray of leaves and dirt covered them both.

Molly was already on the way, coughing and sputtering. I pointed my staff at the ground again and called in more of my will.

"Ventas Sertivas!"

A gale wind came at my beckoning and we ran while it provided us cover. Unfortunately, Morgan didn't care about our clever smokescreen or line of trivialities like targeting. We'd barely gotten more than a few yards when the ground beneath our feet began to shake.

Earth cracked and shattered all around us as we ran and stumbled our way forward. A tree came crashing down behind us and I whipped my head around at the sound and spotted Morgan, disheveled and dirty and more than a little pissed, appear from my wind spell.

The tree blocked his path and as I backed down the little hill we'd been standing on, we were out of his line of sight again, too. With no other options, I dashed down the path, jumping over roots and rocks, hoping to make up for speed with stealth. By the time Morgan got past the tree and up the hill to see us, we'd be out of range.

We made it up another steeper hill and down it again, spotting the river and the slender wooden bridge leading across it with only two hundred feet of light brush and a meadow between us and it.

"Just a bit longer," I panted, pulling Molly along. "Just past that bridge and we'll be clear."

The rickety structure of the bridge had never felt so comforting under my boots as it did in that moment. I drew a relieved breath. And then something resembling a rushing bull hit me in the back.

I hit the floor hard, only managing to turn sideways enough that I hit with my thick skull and not my jaw first. Dentistry bills aside, that was probably a bad trade-off.

"Harry!" Molly wavered drunkenly back and forth in my vision and when I tried to push myself up against, my arms wobbled and faltered when I put my weight on them. Her voice came out shrill and broken with panic. "Come on. Get up!"

Morgan had managed to tag me with a spell from over a hundred yards away. It shouldn't even have been possible to hit a moving target at that range, let alone put enough power into the spell that it didn't fizzle half-way. Or to calculate the amount of power to assure the strike would not be lethal. Hell's bells the guy was good.

"Please, Harry. You have to get up!"

I grunted and pushed my way up to my knees. The world span like a merry-go-round but Molly supported me on one side with her shoulder under mine and I had the railing on the other.

"Sarah Connor was a much better inspirational speaker than you are," I informed Molly. "No? Haven't seen that one, either? We'll get to it eventually."

We moved one step. Then another. Then another. Slowly but surely, emphasis on slowly, we made our way over the river.

By the time we'd crossed, my head was mostly back in the right order and Morgan had caught up. He looked about as well as I felt, with his left pant-leg soaking through with blood where the strain must've popped stitches.

"Fuego!"

Fire roared as it poured from my blasting rod tearing the bridge to kindling and sending the broken remains down into the depths of the river. Morgan glared at me from the other side.

"You cannot escape the White Council's justice, Dresden!"

"Watch me," I called back. "Don't worry, Molly. He can't cross the water."

In my defense, I'd like to point out I was technically right. Morgan thrust a hand forward and the soil behind him rose like a wave, crashing forward and spilling into the river.

"I guess he could cross that, though. Run!"

We set off into the trees again. My legs burned with every step as the ground got rockier and the forest thickened around us. I took comfort in the fact that Morgan would be having an even harder time and that he wouldn't be able to take any more potshots at us.

It was hard work tearing an opening in reality, but I pressed on, knowing we were reaching the finishing line. I closed it again, just to make sure Morgan wouldn't be able to follow. We walked a few paces through a forest with dead spindly trees, whose branches almost seemed to reach out for us as they moved in the breeze. Fifteen steps. A turn to the left. Another two steps.

We went through five different Ways before Lasciel declared it was the last one, leading us through what I think must have been a Svartalver mine at one point, and back into the mortal world.

It was the middle of the night and sky was bright above us. The air was warm and dry, the ground rocky and sandy. I grinned, giddy with triumph and relief.

"Welcome to Australia."

Molly was unfortunately too busy being sick in one of the nearby thorny bushes to appreciate the scenery. Oh well. We had time.


	2. Chapter 2

Long time coming, I guess. Re-write of chapter one's next, then chapter three.

* * *

It had been almost two decades since I'd lived at Ebenezar's farm in the Ozarks but I still remembered my favorite part about it: The quiet. For an angry, confused and frightened 16-year-old wizard, it had been perfect.

The Australian outback was a lot like that. It even had the hot dry weather. I'd lived so long in Chicago that I'd almost forgotten what the sky looked like without the light pollution, but with nothing but a campfire for light for miles and miles, it spread out in all of its vast star-spangled breadth.

I sat a few feet away from the flames, my back leaned up against a rock with nothing but a small foam mattress between me and the hard soil. It was a little bit uncomfortable, but Molly had fallen asleep the moment she'd gotten her dinner down and currently rested her head on my shoulder. I hadn't had the heart to rouse her yet.

We'd spent the early hours of the evening practicing earth magic, a discipline it was clear neither of us had any talent for. Molly, who lacked my raw power, had worn herself ragged after only a few minor workings.

But at least we knew now that earth magic was never going to be her strength.

I look back up at the sky and sighed in content.

"Molly?" My voice had been soft, but the girl stirred, mumbling something unintelligible before settling her head back against my shoulder.

"Molly," I repeated, a little more firmly.

"Mm-whatsit?" She blinked blue bleary eyes open, trying to focus on me through the darkness. My eyes had long since adjusted and I could see her cheeks turn pink in the flickering light of the fire.

"You should get some rest," I told her. "The first few times you bump up against your metaphysical limits, it hits you hard. "

I rose to my feet gingerly, stretching my stiff back and then offered Molly my hand. She took it and I hauled her to her feet. Her gaze fell on the little tent we'd pitched a few yards away from the fire, then back to me. She hesitated a second, maybe two, then asked.

"Aren't you tired?"

I thought I could hear a ghostly feminine chuckle from Lasciel and ignored it.

"Exhausted. I'll check the wards and then I'll be right with you."

Molly returned to the tent and I stepped out into the pitch black night, trusting my wizard's senses. A hundred feet out or so, I reached the edge of the ward I'd constructed with Lasciel's help. It wasn't anything potent, but it would tell me if any mortal crossed it and make hell of a lot of a ruckus. Without a threshold to build it on, it'd break apart at dawn and make the noise then, serving as a wake-up clock.

I almost jumped out of my shoes when I turned around and found Lasciel standing beside me, staring past my shoulder and out into the darkness, as if she could see the wards I'd woven there.

"God damn it, Lasciel," I spat under my breath as my heart lurched.

"In all probability," she murmured, one corner of her mouth turned up into a little smile.

I sighed wearily. "What do you want?"

Lasciel's smile widened.

"The girl's talents are considerable, but they are also limited. Unless you indulge her talent at psychomancy, she will be at a disadvantage in a fight you undertake. And that's without ever taking the troubles her sensitivity will bring into account."

"I know that."

"Indeed," the fallen angel said. "But you do not wish to hear it, or to acknowledge the obvious truth."

"Psychomancy won't help her in a fight against a wizard or against several enemies, " I countered.

"At her current skill level, it would not. I feel I must remind you, however, of how the Corpsetaker utilized it – and while we are on that subject, that she will need to at the very least learn to defend herself against such assaults."

I grimaced at the memory, but mostly about that fact that Lasciel was right. I hated it when she was right.

"It would take her decades to get to that level," I argued. "Probably centuries."

Lasciel smirked, a confident, almost arrogant expression. "Not with the assistance of myself, or one of my fellows. For whom do you really think I was intended?"

I shook my head.

"No," I said firmly. "That's not even on the table. You teach me, I teach her. That's the deal and the only fucking deal, do you understand me?"

Lasciel frowned but nodded in acquiescence.

"Very well. There is always mortal weaponry. Martial arts. It would allow her to defend herself without the use of her power, against any foe. Combined with her talents, some basic knowledge and training would be sufficient to turn her into a rather dangerous assassin."

"I'll think about it," I said as I approached the fire.

I threw a few more logs on, enough to keep it going for a while longer and then slipped into tent.

* * *

I felt intense, desperately out of place as I stood in the clothing store, hip and shoulder leaned up against a wall while I waited for Molly to leave the changing booth. The worst part? This had been my idea.

It wasn't like we had a lot of options in the matter. We needed clothes appropriate to the climate, preferably stuff that didn't make us stand out in the crowd of tourists.

Molly had gotten rid of most of her piercings, the visible ones anyway, and she'd let her hair retake its normal golden brown color. I'd dumped my staff in a cave half a mile away from the Way we'd arrived to Australia from and kept blasting rod and the duster stowed in my backpack. It was far too hot to wear it, in any case.

I'd drawn a line at dying my hair peroxide blonde, though, to Molly's disappointment. Lasciel had been kind enough to provide me a demonstration of how it would've looked. I'd made the right choice.

The heavy drapes closing off the changing room from view parted and Molly stepped out.

I'll be the first to admit that Molly is attractive – as long as her mom and dad aren't around to listen - but I'm not comfortable with the fact.

I suppose the outfit was appropriate for the hot Australian weather, but that was the only damn thing it was appropriate for. The shorts had looked rather small when she'd selected them, but on her... Let's just say they were form-fitting and fitted to interesting forms and leave it at that.

"Lovely, isn't she?" Lasciel murmured into my ear. "You've been meaning to get started with the jogging again, haven't you? You should definitely do it when she's wearing that."

"If you're going to keep doing this, I want the good little angel on my other shoulder," I told Lasciel sourly.

To top the shorts off, Molly had gone with a tank-top of a light pink fabric that didn't quite hide the outline of her bikini underneath. I tried to keep looking neutral, I really did, but the glint of Molly's eyes informed me that I probably wasn't doing a good job at it.

Shit.

Lasciel wasn't wrong, after all. Watching Molly run in that outfit was likely to be a very interesting experience.

I nervously glanced towards the ceiling, half expecting lightning bolts to be descending towards me.

"You'd probably be able to sneak in there with her when she picks her next outfit, you know," Lasciel whispered, a wicked smile on her lips.

I ignored her. Molly was looking at me expectantly.

"Probably not the best outfit if you want to avoid attention, Grasshopper," I told her.

She pouted. It was terribly unfair.

"Oh come on," she badgered, adding on the puppy eyes. "The rest of them aren't bad."

"Fine," I grumbled, desperately hoping that was true. Spoiler warning: It wasn't.

* * *

We generally tried staying out of people's way, but it wasn't always practical or even possible.

Fortunately, there were a lot of tourists travelling around Australia from all over the world. Blending in amongst them wasn't difficult. A majority of the tourists were young, most of them in their late teens or early twenties, which definitely had its advantages.

"You're a really, really great teacher, you know," a very drunk Molly said, grinning a wide grin as she half lay, half sat leaned up against my side.

And disadvantages…

My apprentice and I were stuck in a little hostel a couple of miles outside of Sydney with another dozen travelers. We'd met up with the group two days earlier and had decided to try to blend in while we made our way to Sydney. Odds were good that the Wardens were looking for the two of us, not the whole group.

This particular evening, they were learning about the evils of Goon, which was a boxed beverage that could only be loosely affiliated with wine. It was a horrible swill, but it was also cheap.

I looked down at her and shook my head.

"You're really, really drunk, Molly," I told her, my attempted stern paternal tone ruined by the way I turned her name into a hiccup.

"Yupp!" She agreed, laughing.

The sound was wonderfully carefree and her smile was dazzling. It was the kind of sound and expression that brightened a room and an evening. One I hadn't seen from her since that day in the treehouse.

Our gazes locked and Molly's eyes widened. Her smile faded into a curious, searching expression. She tilted her head to the side and leaned in closer.

It was… Close. I found myself leaning in, too, for just a moment but managed to steer things into a hug at the last moment. I caught a quick glimpse of her disappointment and she held herself stiffly for a few moments before relaxing into my arms.

I had to be a lot drunker than I'd previously thought if even the idea of kissing Molly had been something I entertained. We were drawing a few curious looks from our fellow travelers already and small wonder since our cover story was that we were siblings crossing the country to see our grandmother.

"I think we should get some fresh air," I said, standing. The room spun around for a moment, then steadied.

"Sounds like a plan, sensei," Molly said, the S sounds drawn out into slurs.

She made to bring her box of wine, but I patiently took it and put it down. She scowled, but went with it and we brought our packs. Partially because it was common sense never to leave your stuff unattended but mostly because I had Bob and lots of magical gadgets there.

I sighed in contentment as I breathed in the fresh, cool air, feeling some of the dizziness fade. Even with a sense of clarity more or less restored, some of the effects of whatever the hell had almost happened in there still lingered.

"Do you miss home?"

A few minutes had gone by in silence and we both sat on the edge of the curb. It was difficult not to notice how great Molly's lean, strong legs looked in her jeans shorts. I tried, though. Valiantly. Unsuccessfully, perhaps, but I'd still like to draw attention to the valiance.

"Sometimes," I admitted. "I would kill for a steak sandwich right about now."

She smiled a little.

"I even miss mom."

I chuckled at that. I respected the kid's mother, but I'd be lying if I said I ever liked her much.

"We'll see them again," I promised. "As soon as things calm down a bit, we'll go back and see your folks again, okay?"

"Okay," she said, leaning her cheek on my shoulder again. Within a few minutes, she'd fallen asleep, her soft breath tickling my neck.

It was getting to be a thing and I knew I really should dissuade her. Especially after what had almost happened just a few minutes earlier. I didn't, though. I've never claimed to be particularly smart.

As it turned out, circumstance, fate or something in between decided to step in. There was an explosion somewhere in the far distance and Molly jerked awake, bleary eyes darting from one spot to another in the dark.

Another explosion sounded, this one nearer and I only just managed to pull Molly up to her feet and drag her into the pool shadows between the walls of the hostel and a large tree, when the young woman came running.

She couldn't be much older than Molly. Eighteen or nineteen. She was of a height with her and they were built similarly. She passed under the illumination of a streetlight and I caught more details.

Though she was – Uh – stacked in a manner similar to Molly, she was also haggard looking, her face pale and drawn, her clothes torn and hanging off her thin body.

She was limping as she ran, dragging her left leg after her. Her right arm looked to have been broken and she held it close to her body. I was just about to go do my thing and protect her from whatever evils the big bad world had thrown her way when more people rounded the corner.

There were three of them, two men and one woman, and at first glance they didn't look out of place. They were dressed appropriately for the warm evening in shorts and t-shirts. One of the men was actually barefoot.

My instincts told me something else entirely, though. Even if they looked like tourists, they weren't. They moved in a graceful, almost military unison and with a predatory confidence, eyes taking in the street and finally locking on the fleeing girl.

Confirmation arrived a moment later in the form of a cold, slithering sensation brushing up against my senses and making the hair on my arms stand on end. Vampires. Red Court vampires.

I immediately flattened myself to the wall, pulling Molly close. We weren't quite out of sight, but the creatures were plenty busy.

The girl cried out a harsh sounding word and sent a ball of fire, as powerful and as tightly controlled as anything I could've managed, howling at the vampires. It missed and hit half a dozen feet short of them, blasting the asphalt up into their faces.

The vampires scattered, disappearing into the shadows in eerie silence. If the silence was disturbing, what followed was even worse. Joints popped as their bodies twisted out of their human guise. Flesh tore and ripped, sounding clearly through as the night-air as the vampires, reverted to their true forms somewhere in the shadows.

I got stupid. It was probably inevitable.

I pushed Molly back behind me and reached into the bag I'd brought with me, digging through it until my fingers closed on the familiar length of carved wood hidden there.

The fleeing young woman was backpedaling clumsily on her bad leg, her wide, terrified eyes darting from one patch of shadows to another. She was smart enough to know that if she tried

to flee, she'd be run down in a matter of seconds.

I might not be able to see the vampires, but despite their preternatural senses, they didn't actually have any powers of concealment. Unless I was exceptionally unlucky. Gulp.

So, with my blasting rod out, I focused on shutting out my other senses. Sight went first and the entire world went blurry and indistinct. Smell went second and the scent of Molly's shampoo, the wine and the leaves of the tree we stood crouched by disappeared.

I could hear the distant traffic, the birds on their nightly hunts, the insects buzzing, Molly's frightened panting and – forty feet to my left, along the wall of the building we stood by, the crunch of boots on dry twigs.

I turned slowly until I had the location more or less pinpointed any slowly let my senses return to normal. Knowing that the vampire was there, I could see the vague shape of its outline and I aimed carefully.

Once I made my presence known and got the party started I would have to be ready to dance.

"Fuego!"

Using magic under the influence of alcohol generally isn't a good idea, kids. Especially not the complicated stuff. Instead of the tightly focused beam of fire I wanted, a torrent the width of a garbage can roared out of my blasting rod, spreading the stench of sulfur through the air as it surged forward.

The vampire had enough time to see it coming but not to get out of the way, and its horribly disfigured bat-like face managed to look surprised before it was charred to ashes.

"Stay close," I told Molly firmly as I strode out onto the street in a, if I may say so myself, very Clint Eastwoodian fashion.

Hunting cries from the vampires echoed through the night and I could see the girl's half-turn towards me. Then her gaze fell on Molly and she seemed to come to a decision, turning away from us so that we stood back to back.

She was clearly suspicious, and I didn't blame her, but for the moment I felt pretty sure we could work together.

"If only they sparkled, then at least we'd see them," I muttered to myself. "I'm Dresden."

There was a startled pause.

"Hannah."

"Nice to meet you," I said. "Circumstances could be better, I guess, but that's how it goes."

The girl's chuckle of laughter sounding painful, but at least she had some appreciation for proper humour.

"Maybe they're gone?" Molly suggested hopefully from behind me.

"Nah," I said. "They're just scared."

Maybe my well-crafted provocation yielded fruit and drove the vampires into a blind rage or maybe I just timed it well.

Either way, the words were barely out of my mouth when they struck and they did so in unison, both of them aiming for me. Hardly fair, but then again, that was generally the way life went.

I brought my shield up with a word and the first vampire slammed into it like a speeding car. My boots slid an inch back along the ground, but I kept my balance. Then the other vampire hit me from behind.

I tried to shift my shield to interpose it, but only managed to send the vampire sprawling off balance and while that might have bought me two or three seconds with a human being, this was another matter entirely.

I leveled my blasting rod at its center mass even as I caught the gleam of flashing claws.

"Fuego!"

The blast of fire tore into the creature's flabby, bulging gut like a shotgun shell, but not before its claws got me. We both fell back, but I felt something hot and sticky sting my cheek, which quickly began to numb.

The pain from the wound had only barely made its presence known when it began to fade. Shit shit shit. The Red court's venom was a powerful narcotic with effects similar to heroin – only way better. And worse.

My legs gave out from under me and I sank to the ground, body throbbing with a slow, sensual pleasure.

I could see the vampire I'd injured try to drag itself away from me, only for the girl it had pursued to step up to it and with a harsh word in a foreign tongue, blow its head off. An impressive display of fire magic, really. I would've asked her how it was done if I wasn't busy.

As I lay down on my back, I saw the other vampire in a similar state. Which was good. That meant it wasn't about to chomp down on my neck and ruin my high. Fantastic.

The venom was dragging me down, but the sight of Molly's pale, sweaty face appearing in front of me gave me a few more moments of clarity.

"The blood," I told her. "Get rid of the blood. Find a safe place. Threshold. No hospital. Venom. Blood – burn. No hospital."

The stars were really lovely, twinkling and spinning and…

I woke up slowly, with a half-remembered dream still lingered with me as I blinked my eyes open. Vampires – a girl – the fight – the look of pure terror on Molly's face as I blacked out. It was hazy, blurry and jumbled, but vivid enough that I would've sat up if a hand hadn't been planted on my chest, pushing me back down again.

A man in his late fifties or early sixties stood above me. He looked to be of middle-eastern extraction, his dark hair and beard shot through with silver. He was a little on the heavy side and surprisingly strong.

"Lay still," he said, the words enunciated and carrying an accent. "You'll bleed again."

Spotting the bandages wrapped all around my midriff, from my right hip all the way up to my ribs, I decided it was probably best to do as I'd been told. For now.

I took in the room instead. I was laying on a sofa and my legs hung over the edge. A blanked had been draped over them. My headed pounded, my mouth felt dry and the sun stung my eyes.

"Sure thing," I agreed. "How long have I been out?"

The man glanced at his watch.

"Ten hours. "

He disappeared for a minute and returned with a bottle of water. It was blissfully cold and I drank it all, letting my eyes drift shut once I'd managed that monumentally exhausting task.

"Thank you," I said. I offered him my hand and he shook it with a firm grip. "Harry Dresden."

"Yusuf."

I had questions, but before I had time to ask them, I drifted off again. When I regained consciousness dusk had fallen. My headache was gone and I needed to use the bathroom rather badly.

The apartment wasn't particularly big, which meant that finding it was a simple matter of exploration. I examined myself in the mirror when I was done. Despite the sleep, I looked tired, worn out and my stomach was aching with hunger. At least the bandages were clean.

I drank water from the faucet and when I left the bathroom, my host was waiting for me. He stood in the space leading into the kitchen and I could see a woman behind him by the stove, working on something food-related. My stomach growled but I stayed put.

"Where's Molly?" I asked, looking around. I wasn't going to go barge around the guy's house. Not unless I absolutely had to.

The man's brows furrowed briefly. He probably didn't know her name, but unless his wife was named Molly too, there weren't all that many suspects.

"The girl is fine. Resting."

"Where?"

He nodded, pointing towards the second bedroom next to the bathroom.

"She refused to leave your bedside for many hours. If I hadn't told her it was out of the question, I am certain she would've slept with you."

I looked at the man again, somewhat impressed. Molly generally wasn't a fan of being told what to do and even took issue with things I told her to do. Then again, her parents had raised her well so maybe she'd decided to be a good guest.

"And she did it?"

He nodded with a weary smile.

"She collapsed a couple of hours ago. My wife helped her to bed." He hesitated for a moment, then added. "It is none of my business, but is she not a little too young for you?"

"We're not actually-" I felt my cheeks grow hot and grimaced as I cleared my throat. "We're not… together. Believe me when I say I know she's too young."

Yusuf chuckled. "I take it she disagrees, then?"

"Often."

"Such is the way of young people these days," he said, shrugging. "They're willful. They think they know better than their elders. I know. My daughter married a Jewish boy. "

He grinned and the expression stripped a decade or two of wear from his face.

"I think dinner is just about ready. I expect you're hungry?"

I've never really been much of a connoisseur but I've always liked trying new things.

"Hell yeah," I agreed. "I'll wake Molly. One second."

The room had presumably been Yusuf's daughter's at some point and it didn't seem like much had been done with it. An old desktop computer stood by the desk and there were posters of boy bands popular half a decade ago on the walls. The blinds had been drawn and an old fan was wheezing on steadily on the bedside table.

Molly was fast asleep when I walked into the room. She'd tugged the sheet up to her chin and her toes poked out at the other side. I moved the chair away from the desk as quietly as I could and settled into it, watching my apprentice sleep.

It had been close. Far, far too close. The Red Court operations teams always consisted of six and that probably meant that their buddies had been somewhere in the area. If they'd arrived after I was knocked out, Molly would have died horribly – or worse yet – lived.

If she hadn't been there at all, I would most certainly have died that night. She'd gotten the both of us to safety. I'd thought we were safe, too far away for anyone or anything to catch up with us. I'd been stupid and my failure had almost gotten us both killed.

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, wizards are terrific at brooding and I spent a while doing just that in that dark room. So long, in fact, that Molly stirred and slowly blinked her eyes open.

She brushed stray golden brown locks away from her face and looked up at me.

"Harry?"

"Hey there, Grasshopper." I moved my chair closer until my knees brushed up against the edge of the bed. "Are you feeling okay?"

She propped herself up on one elbow, giving me a blank look.

"Am I okay?" She exclaimed with a faint note of hysteria to her words as she pushed herself into a seated position. "Harry you- You were bleeding and you wouldn't wake up. I thought you were going to die."

"I would've but you saved my ass." I grinned. "Which I appreciate."

Her blue eyes were bloodshot and watery, but she managed a weak smile and grabbed hold of my hand. It was the left hand, the one that had gotten all but melted by flame-thrower wielding vampires. I couldn't actually feel her touch, but I squeezed back as well as I could.

Molly caught me by surprise when she grabbed hold of the leather glove and began to peel it off.

"Molly. What're you-"

I grabbed her wrist out of pure instinct but she barely reacted, pulling the glove all the way off. The fingers of my left hand were stiff, pale and still looked a little like a half-melted wax-sculpture. If it disturbed the girl, it didn't show on her face, though. She pushed her palm against mine and twined her fingers with mine.

"When you were… Out of it, I guess, you… You said things." She took a deep breath and squeezed down hard. "You were scared. They…"

Even in the dim lighting, I could see her face twist with distaste and worry. "They hurt you, didn't they?"

I felt my blood run cold at the implications and the memories being dredged up from the dark hole at the back of my mind where I'd firmly repressed them. I didn't know what I'd told her under the influence of the vampire's venom and the less she knew the better. She had enough things to be scared of already.

"They hurt a lot of people, Molly," I said. "That's why they're monsters and that's why we fight them."

"But-"

I don't know when we'd gotten so close and I didn't really realize until I brushed my fingers along Molly's cheek. But with my hand on her soft, warm skin, I became painfully aware of it. We were only a few inches apart.

Molly tilted her head a fraction to the side, eyes questioning. She leaned in half an inch, then hesitated. God help me, but I almost leaned in, too. At the last second, sanity returned and I pressed the kiss to the girl's forehead instead.

"We need to get moving," I told her, softly. "It's almost dark again and we need to be out of town by the time it is. Are you ready?"

She blinked in confusion, then visibly steeled herself and nodded.

"Yeah. Let's go."

Molly was growing up to be one hell of a woman.

* * *

"So. What do you think?"

I was standing in the middle of the living room of an apartment. There was a ratty old couch in one corner and a table by it. It wasn't a large room and the kitchen was off in the corner by the entrance, opposite the small bathroom.

The only other room was a bedroom. I don't exactly ask for a lot when it comes to the place to call home, but I felt a stab of longing for my old basement apartment in Chicago as I looked at the stains on the wall.

What did I think?

On the bright side, the rent was pretty cheap, which was a good thing since we barely had any money. On the other, it was one of the worst shitholes I'd ever seen, and let me tell you, I've seen plenty of those.

I looked sideways at Molly, whose nose was scrunched up at the reek of cigarettes that had built up inside.

She shrugged and I guessed why. The money wasn't really hers so she didn't want to butt in on the decision.

I turned to the owner. Or the owner's son, maybe. The kid was only a few years older than Molly. He was out of his teens, but not by a lot, skinny and a few inches below average height, with hair in dire need of a wash. He'd been polite and pleasant enough, but something about him had my instincts twigged.

"We'll take it."

He nodded.

"Rent's 400 a month and it's another 400 in deposit. You'll pay on the 25th of each month." He frowned in thought. "It's the 20th now so we'll say 100 this month. You can keep the stuff that's here if you want"

Mathematically, that wasn't exactly fair… But when you don't have any papers and you're on the run, you sometimes have to accept that life isn't fair. I dug out my wallet and handed him the deposit plus the rent for the month, trying not to show him that that I didn't have enough for the next month.

He counted the money. Twice. His tongue wiggled between his lips as he did and he nodded when he was satisfied that the rumpled small bills I'd gathered were enough.

"Enjoy your stay."

He pushed off the doorframe, handed me the key, and closed the door behind him, officially starting off the first day out of ninety-two as flat mates with Molly.

* * *

**Day One.**

I woke to the sound of traffic in the distance and people shouting outside the window. The scent of some spicy food was wafting in along with the noise and the morning sun and I groaned. It was getting hot already and I felt a slight headache building, prompting me to abandon the questionable comforts of my lumpy new bed, get dressed and head out into the living room. The room still stank of smoke, even though we'd kept the windows open all night.

Molly lay spread haphazardly over the sofa, one leg on the floor. She'd used a few jumpers as covers but had shed them over the course of the night, leaving her wearing a pair of black panties and a t-shirt.

I kept my eyes from lingering on her and headed over to the faucet, cupping my hands under the blissfully cool water and gulping down greedy mouthfuls. By the time I felt marginally better, I could hear Molly moving over by the couch and turned to find her yawning and stretching.

She grimaced in discomfort as she got to her feet, fingers trailing along her spine, and I'll be lying if I was saying the way that thrust her chest out wasn't intriguing to watch.

"You alright?"

"Yeah." She moved over to the sink and drank much as I had, then took a step towards the fridge before stopping half-way there. It would be empty – or at least I really hoped it was. She frowned as she looked at me.

"What's the plan now, boss?"

We'd only really discussed things loosely since we'd fled the Red Court a week prior, eventually deciding we needed a place with an actual threshold where we could seek shelter.

As it turned out, getting a place when you were an illegal immigrant without any contacts wasn't easy, and we'd eventually had to settle.

"We need rent-money," I said, looking around. "Food, something to clean this place up with… A pad of paper to make this list on."

I ran a hand through my hair. It needed cutting, but that wasn't going to be an option in the foreseeable future.

"Could we use magic?" Molly asked uncertainly. "Like, a cleaning spell or something?"

I couldn't help but grin. At least she'd more or less caught on to my lessons about not using magic frivolously.

"Nope. We're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way. How much money do we have left?"

* * *

**Day Five**

I'd always thought Thomas was a problematic roommate. He'd been a shameless slob, he'd brought girls home and had sex with them on every imaginable surface of the apartment - as well as several one would not expect - and had been an overall pain in my ass.

But he'd been my brother and as much and as often as we'd gotten on one another's nerves, it had all been something I could deal with.

With Molly, it was different. She was perfectly courteous most of the time, didn't shy away from helping out cleaning the place up, and we looming bankruptcy and starvation aside, we were actually getting along well.

She was also completely evil and scheming on a level that far outstripped Thomas' abilities.

It all started with the sofa the previous tenant of the apartment had left us. With only one bedroom, we decided I'd get the bed and she the sofa. I'd like to stress that I did volunteer to take the sofa, but she insisted since I was taller I should have the bed. It wasn't the kind of logic I could argue against.

She was patient about setting her plan in motion. A complaint here or there, some stretching, nothing major at first. A few more days went by and then, one night, just as I was about to wall asleep, I heard the soft patter of footsteps on the floor.

There was the squeaking of springs and the mattress sank down a few inches as someone settled on it.

"Hey… Harry. Are you awake?" Molly whispered.

"No," I muttered, too tired to raise my face off my pillow.

"Can I sleep here tonight?"

She was holding the small of her back, with a look of discomfort on her face.

"The ravages of age," I muttered. "Yeah, sure."

In retrospect, that was the moment where I should have shut her down. Told her to go back to the couch and that we'd solve everything in the morning. I didn't. I was already drifting off again. I wouldn't realize the full extent of my mistake until the next day.

* * *

**Day Nine**

I looked up from my vigorous scrubbing of the kitchen floor when the door opened. Molly was walking in, her head only barely poking up over the huge pile of clothes in the hamper she was carrying.

"Did everything work out?" I asked, straightening from my work.

Molly set the hamper down with a grunt of effort.

"Yeah. I've got six younger siblings, Harry. I know laundry."

I chuckled at that, looked more closely at her, then frowned at what she was wearing.

"Molly. Is that my t-shirt?"

I knew it was, of course, with the familiar KISS logo on a black background, falling to cover most of her tan thighs. It unavoidably left my stupid brain wrestling with the question of what she might or might not be wearing underneath it, even though I knew there had to be something.

She shrugged and that did confirm that she wasn't wearing a bra underneath.

"Yeah. All my stuff's in the machine now. Yours is all done." She glanced at my work on the linoleum floors, which stubbornly remained dirty looking despite my best efforts.

"So you decided to take my shirt," I said.

"Yeah," she said, her smile perfectly innocent. "Is that weird?"

Was it? Only if I made it weird, really, and that would probably be worse…

"Cause I can take it off if it is," she couldn't quite hide her grin as she grabbed the hem of the t-shirt.

"No! No, it's fine. Keep it."

She smiled sweetly at me.

"Thanks. It's really comfy."

Of course it was.

"I'll see if I have more luck with the bathroom," I told her, getting my bucket and rag. I paused in the doorway, remembering something.

"I found something, by the way, so keep your schedule clear on Friday."

* * *

**Day Twenty**

The first spell Molly had ever managed to put together was also the one she'd thus far proved most talented at, and after only a few months of my tutelage, her veils were already better mine.

The problem was that the same talent that allowed her to craft such delicate spells, to sense things that I would never be able to perceive, were turning out to cause her problems in the presence of intense emotions. The more skilled she got, the worse it would get, and as much as I wanted to keep her out of anything resembling a combat situation, the way our lives had been going, that seemed unlikely.

And that was why we were pressed together under one of her veils, sneaking into a concert. I'm going somewhere with this. Really.

"Are you sure about this, Boss?" Molly asked. I could all but hear her grin.

"Yes, Molly. It's a local band. I asked around and the girl at the ticket place said, and I quote, 'they are rad'. That's praise from you young'uns, isn't it?"

"Uhm… Probably. I still don't think this is going to be your kind of music, you know?"

I looked around. The kids were wearing a lot of dark clothes and gothy accessories.

"It's just music. How bad could it be?"

"This is so bad."

"I did tell you."

I scowled at the girl.

"You don't have to be that smug about it," I groused, covering my ears with my hands.

We were in the middle of a muddy field, in front of a large raised stage, upon which Driveway Park or something like that were plying their… Craft. And yes, I'm using that term very loosely. It was all noise, screeching, horrible noise, with something vaguely related to singing somewhere in the mix.

The sun had disappeared an hour earlier, but its warmth still remained in the air.

"Yes, I do," she said.

"One of these days I'm going to take you to a Springsteen concert so that you get to experience real music."

"It's a date," she said cheekily.

I gave her my best unamused look and ignored the comment.

"Are you ready to go again?"

Molly's face paled considerably, but she nodded and I dragged the tip of my sneaker across the circle I'd drawn in the ground. She rocked back as the pressure of the crowd washed over her like a wave.

"Focus," I told her. "It's not about force, it's about balance. Don't push it away. Let it slip by."

Molly stood still, her hands locked into fists, her spine rigid, her teeth grit into a grimace. For her, this was the metaphysical equivalent of pressing an ear to the gigantic loudspeakers the band had spread out. What I was trying to teach her wasn't to shut them down but to put in a pair of earplugs.

Tears were forming at the corners of her blue eyes and she'd begun to pant with exertion. She wasn't succeeding, but I couldn't get worked up about it, or I'd just add the the noise. I had to serve as a beacon for her to home in on, to lean on.

A piteous moan slipped past her lips and I stepped into the circle, willing it shut behind me, steadying Molly when she stumbled.

"Forty-six seconds," I told her. "That's ten seconds more than last time. Good job."

She made a soft nonsensical sound, then straightened enough to lean her head against my chest. It was intimate enough to make me a little uncomfortable, but if I was going to motivate her, then I had to indulge some of her bad habits occasionally.

"It's nothing," she muttered. "I need to do more."

She was as stubborn as I had once been. Well, almost anyways.

"What's the most important aspect of magic?" I asked her.

"Patience," she parroted impatiently. "I know, but I-"

She made a frustrated sound and I couldn't help but smile, remembering Elaine sounding just like that, almost two decades in the past.

"No buts," I said firmly. "You'll learn to handle it."

She nodded and stepped back, wobbling a little before steadying in the middle of the large circle.

"Okay. Let's do it again."

I considered her carefully. Her jaw was set in determination and I could already see her try to gather herself.

"If you're sure."

She flashed me a grin.

"One more."

Molly kicked at the circle and the noise came roaring back in.

* * *

**Day Thirty-three**

I've always been a sucker for routine and after little over a month in the apartment, I had settled into doing any and all shopping we needed during the pleasantly cool evenings.

"I'm heading out, Molly," I called through the bathroom door. "Want me to get anything?"

The shower was running on the other side.

"No, that's okay," the girl called back. "See you in a bit."

Humming to myself, I pulled my jacket on and headed out, locking the door behind me and raising the modest set of wards I'd set up around the place and began to head down the stairs.

The building had four floors and our apartment was the third.

"Harry?"

I paused with my hand on the door leading out of the building at the sound of a familiar voice. I sighed and turned around to face our landlord. His name was Liam Jefferson, though Molly and I called him something different, and he wasn't actually the landlord. He was the landlord's son, and for all intents and purposes, that was the same thing.

"Yeah?"

The guy walked up to me. His feet were bare, despite the dingy floors.

"The rent was due yesterday," he said, voice level and polite, despite clearly being annoyed.

I'd seen him deal with other residents and most of the time, he didn't bother with courtesy. Then again, most of the tenants weren't well over a foot taller to him, I suppose. I felt around in my jacket for my wallet and frowned when I couldn't find it. I could've sworn I put it there earlier.

"Yeah. I've got it. Let me go get my wallet."

"Sure, sure. How's your roomie doing?"

I'd been about to walk away but I turned around and stepped up to the kid, close enough to get inside his personal bubble.

"She's doing well," I said, keeping my voice carefully neutral. "Thanks for asking."

He eased back half a step from me, grinning and holding his hands up, palms forward.

"Hey, mate. Can't blame a guy for trying, can you? Hot piece of…" He caught himself and went silent.

I had a thing or two to tell the kid, but I couldn't. At best, that'd lead to us being thrown out onto the street. At worst, the police would get involved and then the Wardens would be tagging along for the party shortly thereafter.

"I guess not," I said. "Give me a few minutes."

I headed back upstairs again, disarmed the wards, opened the door and closed it behind me.

"Molly, have you seen my-?"

The last word died on my lips and I froze in place on the doormat, staring.

Molly stood in the middle of the room, completely naked, with droplets of water still running down her skin, down along the sumptuous curve of her…

And then it got worse. Molly turned around towards me. For a long moment, we both stood there, staring at one another and then I turned around facing the door.

"What the hell, Molly?" I asked. "Why are you naked?"

I was never going to get the mental image out of my head. Damn it.

"You said you were going to the store," she protested. "I didn't think you'd be back so soon."

"I wasn't going to be, but I met The Creep on the way out and he wanted rent money… And I forgot my wallet around here somewhere - Go get dressed."

"Fine."

She stomped off and I didn't turn around until I heard the door close. A minute later, she re-emerged, dressed and holding my wallet. She walked up to me, blush brightening with every step, and held it out for me.

"Oh come on," she said, giving what she probably thought was a coy smile. "It wasn't that bad, was it?"

I gave her a look and cursed her infectious smile as I found myself joining in.

"I am definitely not answering that."

Her smiled turned into a pout and she walked off with a bit of extra sway to her hips. I found myself with a lot to think about as I walked off to the store.

I returned to the apartment about thirty minutes later, with our bills for the month paid and two bags of groceries. The fridge groaned when I walked up to it, as it always did, and I put the perishables in quickly, then grabbed the second bag and headed over to the sofa.

"How was work today?"

She groaned and the moment I'd settled into the sofa, she put her feet in my lap.

"Fine," she muttered, head dropping back against the cushions. "Did I ever tell you how much I hate whoever came up with high heels?"

"You may have mentioned it once or twice," I said, working my thumbs against the soles of her foot.

Considering how vividly I could still picture Molly from earlier, I wished she'd be a little less vocal in her appreciation. A quarter of an hour went by and I pushed Molly's feet out of my lap. She made a sound of vague, sleepy disapproval.

"I thought we'd practice some magic today," I told her. "Unless you're too tired."

It took Molly two seconds tops to get vertical.

"I'm okay," she insisted. "What're we doing?"

"You're going to learn to construct defenses against a psychic assault. I'm going to sit here, say 'hmm, that's interesting' and make Freud jokes."

* * *

**Day Sixty-Two**

"This is a really nice place for a date," Molly said.

We'd lain out a blanket in a secluded spot in the grass by a little pond in the park. It was two bus rides and a long walk from our apartment but it was calm and quiet, both of which essential for what we were doing there.

And it wasn't a date.

"It's not a date," I told her. "It's a lesson."

"Of course." She yawned and stretched where she lay, joints popping. "So what're we doing?"

"If you look away for a little while, I'm going to call on a friend."

Molly turned her head my way.

"That sounds like something that should have me crying stranger danger."

"Very funny," I said, dryly. "Cover your ears too while you're at it."

She rolled her eyes but did as I'd told her and I cupped my hands and whispered a name. I repeated it the standard three times and gave Molly's shoulder a nudge to let her know she could uncover her ears again.

"So… What was that about?"

I just smiled at her and said nothing for a while just because I knew it annoyed her. That'd show her to make bad jokes when that was clearly my thing.

"A surprise. We'll probably have to wait a bit and speaking of surprises…"

I opened up the cooler we'd brought along and Molly pushed herself up into a seated position. She looked inside and her frown was quickly replaced with a bright smile as she picked up the cake.

"I can't believe you remembered," she whispered. Her cheeks were bright pink and she wasn't looking at me, favouring the cake instead. It was chocolate and banana, with a single unlit candle in the middle.

"Of course I remembered," I said, handing over the plastic fork and a knife.

She didn't accept either and instead grabbed hold of my hand, squeezing and running a thumb along my skin.

"Thanks," she said softly, looking up at me. "I really appreciate it."

The circumstances were conspiring against me. The warm, late afternoon in the shadow of the tree, the birds twittering, the warm, soft hands holding mine. Molly's blue eyes staring up at mine, unconcerned about the growing intimacy of the gesture.

"Anytime."

She hesitated a moment and then wrapped her arms around me in a tight hug, holding on almost desperately. It wasn't until I felt the tears dripping down on my shoulder that I realized she was crying.

I didn't mention it. There wasn't any need. If she wanted to talk about feeling homesick, and I felt fairly certain that was what it was about, then she would. If not, then I'd wait.

"We'd better get a slice and then put it back in the cooler before it melts," I told her.

I sliced up a piece each and put the cake, stuck the single candle into hers and lit it with a quiet incantation.

"Make a wish."

We both demolished our first piece within a minute of Molly blowing out the candle and went for seconds. I caught my apprentice's hand before she could eat the last piece.

"Do you remember what I told you about The Sight?" I asked.

She nodded, eyes bright with interest.

"Put the last piece in your hand and look over towards the base of the tree."

I moved over to her side, pointing towards the foot of the large eucalyptus tree we were sitting under.

"Close your eyes and focus on this spot here. You'll feel it when it works and you can open them again. Hold out the cake."

I put a finger between her eyebrows and opened my own sight. Out of the many skills wizard-level talents are born with, The Sight is among the most useful and dangerous.

My Sight cut through the mundane veil of the world and with it, I Saw everything. I saw the lifeforce of the old tree, from the roots burrowed into the soil, spreading out until the thinnest of its twigs.

And behind it, a little creature was poking its head out. It looked something like a Chinese dragon in miniature, two inches long at the most, its skin a shimmering rainbow of colours.

I could feel Molly tense when she managed to access her own sight.

"Easy," I told her, keeping my voice slow and calm. "Focus on the… Whatever it is. It's not dangerous."

The rainbow snake thing swam through the air, from side to side, edging closer, its forked tongue darting out to taste the air the way a snake's might. It took it a minute to make its way over to Molly, by which time the cake had all but melted in her hand.

It seemed to make no difference to the creature and it lapped it up and let a giggling Molly pet its head while it ate. It gave her hand a fond nudge with its head, the way a Mister sometimes did, and then vanished back behind the tree and into the brush.

"Good job," I told her, giving her shoulder a squeeze. "Close your eyes again and count to five."

And that was when Molly got stupid. I really should've seen it coming, of course, and I really should've warned her before-hand, but I hadn't and she turned her Sight toward me.

Her reaction was almost immediate. A brief moment of surprise and then her eyes widened in shock.

"Harry, you're bleeding!" She put a hand to my chest, as it trying to apply pressure to a wound, then one to my abdomen that would've been awkward and distracting under other circumstances.

The look on her face made me fairly certain that her efforts weren't doing much good.

"Look at me," I told her, keeping my voice as calm as I could. "It's not real."

I put both my hands on her cheeks, thumbs under her chin, forcing her eyes to mine.

"Look me in the eye, Molly. It's just the sight. I'm not hurt." She blinked and tried to wrench her head free but I held firm. "Close your eyes, Molly. Breath."

"Okay," she said, squeezing her eyes shut. "Okay."

A minute passed in silence before Molly opened her eyes and looked at me again. I smiled wryly at her.

"What have you learned?"

She glared at me but it lacked any semblance of conviction.

"That The Sight is really crazy?"

She shuddered as the thought brought the memory back to her, as fresh and vivid as when she'd first seen it. The same way it would stay there, for as long as she lived.

"That… And that you should trust that I tell you to do things for a reason."

"I got that, thanks," she muttered, rolling her eyes.

"You'd better," I warned her. "Or next time you might get to see something you can't handle and then I can't help you. Okay?"

She gave me a tight nod.

"Tell me you understand."

Fear and worry made it come out angrier than I'd intended and the girl flinched. She tried to hide it, but I didn't miss it.

"I understand." She hesitated. "I'm sorry. I just… I wanted - It was stupid."

"Yes, it was." I gave her shoulder a pat. "Do you want more cake?"

* * *

**Day Eighty**

Keys jangled outside the door and I turned away from the sandwiches I'd been preparing. The stove had broken. Again. Metal scraped and the door handle rattled but the door remained closed. Muted swearing could be heard from the other side of the door and after a few more seconds, the lock turned and the door swung inwards.

Molly all but toppled in along with it, coming to an unsteady halt in the middle of the room. She kicked off her shoes and walked up to the couch, collapsing upon it without saying a word.

I finished up the sandwiches, poured us each a glass of milk and brought the entire load over to her, kicking the door she'd left open shut on my way over.

We'd recently invested in a little coffee table by the couch; I set the food and drinks down on it before sitting down next to Molly.

"Long day?"

"Yeah."

She groaned and inched closer, just enough to rest her cheek on my leg. I watched her for a moment as she snatched up one of the sandwiches and tore into it.

"Will it ever get better?" Molly asked.

"It will," I promised.

"When?" She made a frustrated noise and pulled herself up into a seated position, looking up at me with bloodshot blue eyes. "How much longer?"

"It's complicated." I raised a hand to forestall her objection. "I know that sucks and I know that's not the answer you want, but it's as good as I can do for you right now."

She looked down at her lap.

"It just feels like it gets worse, sometimes. Like I'm backsliding."

"That's because your powers are growing. You're getting more input and you're having a hard time adjusting. You'll get there."

When she finally looked up at me there was an uncertainty in her gaze. She looked at me, not in search of information but for a promise that everything was going to work out.

"Are you sure?"

I bent down to kiss her forehead.

"Positive."

* * *

**Day Ninety-two**

I've never had a sleeping schedule that people would refer to as normal or healthy… Or even sane. It's been one of the constants of my life, no matter how hard I've tried to adjust.

Because of that, waking up in the dead of night wasn't anything new to me and I thought I was just about to turn over on my pillow and try to go back to sleep when I heard it. A knock on the door. There'd been a doorbell. Briefly. Well, it was still around, it just didn't work anymore.

I glanced sideways at the old clock on my bedside table - which informed me it was 03:49 in the morning. The bedroom window of my apartment was open and a cool, refreshing breeze rolled in continuously, bringing with it the sweet, pervasive scent from the local bakery that had recently begun their work.

Stepping into a pair of sweatpants, I cast one last longing look towards the bed. It wasn't new and it was lumpy but Molly lay there, soft and warm, with her hair fanning out in a golden halo on her pillow. The covers had slipped halfway off her, barring legs and an ass that a lesser man would've paused to stare at.

Fortunately, I wasn't a lesser man. I was just considered whether she might be… freezing. What was I supposed to be doing again? Oh yeah.

There was another knock on the door, this one more insistent. I muttered a few choice words to myself as I walked across the yellowed linoleum floors, through the tiny kitchen slash living room, and towards the door.

If Thompson at the floor above had gotten confused about where he lived again, I just might lose it. I'd have sent him a swarm of rats if I wasn't sure his apartment already had one living there.

I opened the door and my reprimand got stuck in my throat in an undignified noise. It was not Jake Thompson, resident junkie and pain in my ass, who was standing outside of my apartment door.

It wasn't the Liam, the landlord, with some bogus complaint and an attempt to flirt with Molly.

It was a man of average height and unassuming build. He was in his Clooney Years - and had been for millennia - with silver gracing his dark hair at the temples. His trousers and silk shirt were both tailor-made, throwing a sharp contrast to the slender length of a hangman's noose he wore about his throat like a tie.

"How the mighty have fallen," Nicodemus Archleone said, smiling as he took in my disheveled, undressed appearance. "Good morning, Dresden."

I blinked at him, my heart going at about a million beats a minute. Fortunately, my smart-ass reflexes couldn't be overcome even by a shock as potent as this one

"Fancy seeing you here, Nick," I said, my voice coming out croaky. "How's the family?"

The man's smile widened at that.

"Quite well. Thank you for asking. I am glad you took my lesson about properties to heart since the last time we met."

I just stared at him. My brain was beginning to catch up enough for me to analyze the situation. He wasn't visibly armed, but I knew the man well enough to be certain that he had more than enough gear on him to kill me ten times over.

But if what he'd wanted to do was kill me, then why had he waited?

"Sure," I said, tentatively questing out with my magical senses to see if I could detect something my mundane senses could not. "What do you want?"

It may have come out just a little hostile. Nicodemus shadow, which had pooled in front of his gleaming leather shoes, flickered and writhed for a moment before settling down again.

"I want you to work with me."

"And you decided that the asscrack of the morning was the best time to come by?"

Nicodemus didn't seem to enjoy my brilliant wit, but he was evil and a douchebag so I didn't let that bother me.

"Unfortunately, I am somewhat short on time, which is why I came as soon as could be arranged and why there is little time for us to exchange… Pleasantries."

I leaned my hip against the doorframe and just looked at the guy.

"You still haven't gotten to the point where you tell me why I should give a shit."

Nicodemus smiled and remained completely relaxed, even though I felt reasonably sure he wanted nothing more than to strangle the life out of me right then and there. He was not a man who was used to being insulted and I expected he was even less used to allowing the insulter live.

"We have a common problem. If we fail to deal with it, we will all suffer the fallout."

"So we must band together against our common foe and I'm sure we'll find out we've got all sorts of stuff in common over the course of our adventure, huh?"

I might not have been particularly subtle with the sarcasm.

"I am offering you a chance to potentially end the war with the Red Court and to prevent horrors you could not even begin to imagine. Why would I come all this way only to lie to you?"

I weighed my next words carefully - really, I did.

"Because you're a dick, Nicodemus. Not to mention kind of evil."

"And because of that you would let the world burn?"

My patience was fraying.

"Nah. I'll just do it on my own. You murdered Shiro and tried to kill off my city with a plague. So tell me why I shouldn't kick your ass down the stairs and go back to bed?"

Nicodemus smiled at that, a cool, dangerous expression. He wasn't even a bit scared of me.

"You'd be dead before you could draw power. Even if you somehow managed to hurt me, the lovely young woman in your bed - Carpenter's eldest, isn't she? - would be shot. I could also have the entire building leveled."

The worst part wasn't the extent of how fucked I was. What really, truly scared me was that Nicodemus was not the sort of villain who told you his entire evil plan, which meant that he had a lot more up his sleeve than he'd just told me.

"If I wanted to kill you, you would be dead. I wouldn't even have to get my hands dirty. One phone call to your White Council would've had you dead within a few days. As much as it pains me, we have common foes and they need to be dealt with now."

I gritted my teeth but stepped aside to let him come inside.

"If I'm going to hear any more of this bullshit I'm going to need some coffee."

The coffee machine I'd bought the antique's shop didn't make good coffee, but even bad coffee has caffeine and that was the important part. I dumped in extra sugar and cream to make up for the difference.

"I'll get right to the point," Nicodemus said. Then he took a long, slow sip of coffee. I carefully reminded myself that he was the one pressed for time and not me. "As you are probably aware, The Red Court has gained the support of human practitioners and through them, outsiders."

I rolled my wrist in an impatient "go ahead" gesture. He was correct about not spelling out anything that was new to me or The White Council. For now.

"What you may not know is that one, or several of these practitioners, are among my order."

I had the feeling that this wasn't something he wanted to admit to and that he was, at this moment, far down his list of plans. I mean, come on. I've never been anyone's plan A.

My next few words, I choose very, very carefully.

"Would they be doing things like… Using hellfire to attack Arctis Tor while the Fae and the Council were busy fighting The Red Court?"

Nicodemus' poker face cracked - just for a moment - and I knew that was news to him. Damn, Mab must've kept the lid on tight on that shit.

"Hellfire," he said, his voice a bare whisper. "Are you certain?"

"Yes." I frowned at him. "Trust me, I know hellfire."

That brought a toothy smile to his lips.

"I suppose you would." He tapped his fingers on his leg a couple of times, expression thoughtful. "Were they successful?"

"Probably not. They didn't get Mab but they banged up Arctis Tor pretty well. What they were after is anybody's guess."

It all depended on why the attack had been perpetrated. The thought of the denarians, as powerful as they were, attempting to kill Mab was laughable and worrying all at the same time.

Nicodemus made a thoughtful sound and sipped at his coffee.

"I see… It might be relevant in the future but for now, we have immediate concerns. Perhaps you should wake Miss Carpenter? I would rather not waste time to repeating myself."

"Yeah, about that…" I leaned forward in my chair. "I think it'd be best if I laid down some ground rules."

Nicodemus made a sound of inquiry.

"If you, or any of your 'friends' hand her a coin, or drop one near her, or accidentally misplace one where she might find it. If you do anything or let anything happen to her, I will kill your fucking daughter. Are we clear?"

That actually got to him. He lowered the cup from his lips, toying with it in his hand for a moment. A threat against him wouldn't phase him because we both knew it was pointless. His darling daughter was another matter entirely.

"I think we understand one another, Dresden," he said. "Call on the girl."

In retrospect "We need to talk" might not have been the best way to start off the conversation. Molly looked understandably apprehensive as she shambled along in a pair of hastily grabbed jeans and a t-shirt, running her hands through sleep-tousled blonde hair.

Nicodemus still sat in my ratty old sofa, idly sipping his cup of coffee, seemingly perfectly at ease. He inclined his head to Molly when she came through the door.

"Miss Carpenter," he said smoothly, rising and offering his hand. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

A golden eyebrow with a single, slender metal ring through it rose and Molly cast a questioning sideways glance to me. I gave her a quick, shallow nod.

"Yeah…" She said, watching him carefully as she shook his hand. "Who are you again?"

"Nicodemus."

Molly stiffened for a moment as she pulled back and I felt certain it wasn't the first time she'd heard that name. She gave me another sideways glance, without ever taking her eyes off Nicodemus, and spoke through clenched teeth.

"What's he doing here, boss?"

I decided that this was a time for choosing my words carefully.

"You know the saying about how the road to hell is paved with good intentions… Or maybe legos?"

Molly frowned.

"The first part, sure."

I nodded.

"This might be that first step. I have to go to Mexico. The war's getting back into gear and Susan's in danger. I'm not going to ask you to come with me."

Molly put her hand on my shoulder and smiled up at me.

"Sure. So when are we leaving?"


End file.
